Surah Al-Isra 17:98
ﱡ ﱢ ﱣ ﱤ ﱥ ﱦ ﱧ ﱨ ﱩ ﱪ ﱫ ﱬ ﱭ ﱮ
That is their recompense because they disbelieved in Our verses and said, "When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we [truly] be resurrected [in] a new creation?"
Tafsir of Al-Isra 17:97-98
Tafsir
Mafatih al-Ghayb
Verse range: 17:97-98
Al-Isra: (97-98) And whoever Allah guides...
Know that when the Almighty answered the doubts of the people regarding the denial of prophethood and followed it up with a warning—which is His statement: {Indeed, He is over His servants, Acquainted, Seeing}—He then mentioned the severe warning in detail.
As for His statement: {Whoever Allah guides is the [rightly] guided, and whoever He leaves astray—never will you find for them protectors other than Him}, the purpose is to console the Messenger. It means that those for whom Allah’s decree of faith and guidance has preceded must become believers, and those for whom Allah’s decree of misguidance and ignorance has preceded, it is impossible for them to turn away from that misguidance, and it is impossible for anyone to exist who can divert them from that misguidance.
Our scholars used this verse as proof for the correctness of their doctrine regarding guidance and misguidance. The Mu'tazila interpret this misguidance sometimes as guidance away from the path to Paradise, sometimes as the withholding of divine favors (altaf), and sometimes as abandonment and not intervening to prevent them. We have mentioned these discussions repeatedly, so there is no benefit in repeating them.
As for His statement: {And We will gather them on the Day of Resurrection on their faces—blind, mute, and deaf}, if it is asked how they can walk on their faces, the answer is twofold:
- They will be dragged on their faces, as stated: {The Day they will be dragged into the Fire on their faces} (Al-Qamar: 48).
- Abu Hurayrah narrated that it was asked, "O Messenger of Allah, how will they walk on their faces?" He replied, "The One who makes them walk on their feet is capable of making them walk on their faces."
The wise scholars of Islam said: The souls of the disbelievers are intensely attached to the world and its pleasures, and they have no attachment to the realm of the righteous and the presence of Allah, the Glorified and Exalted. Since the faces of their hearts and souls were directed toward the world, it is only right that their resurrection will be on their faces.
As for His statement: {blind, mute, and deaf}, know that someone once said to Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him): Does not Allah say: {And the criminals will see the Fire} (Al-Kahf: 53), and {They will hear its raging as it boils} (Al-Furqan: 12), and {They will call out there for destruction} (Al-Furqan: 13), and {The Day every soul will argue for itself} (An-Nahl: 111), and He recounts the disbelievers saying: {By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists} (Al-An'am: 23)? These verses prove that they see, hear, and speak. So how can it be said here: {blind, mute, and deaf}?
Ibn Abbas and his students answered this from several perspectives:
- Ibn Abbas said: Blind in that they see nothing that pleases them; deaf in that they hear nothing that pleases them; mute in that they cannot utter an argument.
- In a narration from 'Ata, he said: Blind to the sight of what Allah has prepared for His allies; mute from addressing Allah and addressing the near angels; deaf to the praise of Allah the Exalted for His allies.
- Muqatil said: When it is said to them: {Be gone therein, and speak not to Me} (Al-Mu'minun: 108), they become blind, mute, and deaf. Before that, they see, hear, and speak.
- They will be seeing, hearing, and speaking at the Standing Place (Mawqif), otherwise, they would not be able to review their books or hear the establishment of Allah's proof against them. However, when they are taken from the Standing Place toward the Fire, Allah makes them blind, mute, and deaf.
The response is that the previous verses indicate that in the Fire, they will see, hear, and cry out.
As for His statement: {Their refuge will be Hell}, this is apparent. As for His statement: {Whenever it subsides, We increase the blaze for them}, there are discussions concerning it:
First Discussion: Al-Wahidi said: *Khubū’* (subsiding) is the stillness of the fire. It is said: *Khabiyat an-nār takhbū* if its flame stills. The meaning of *khabiyat* is that it stilled and extinguished. Its verbal noun is *khubū’*, and *akhbāhā al-mukhbī’ ikhbā’an* means he extinguished it. Then he said: **{We increase the blaze for them}**. Ibn Qutaybah said: We increase their burning/blazing (*talahhub*).
Second Discussion: One might argue that Allah does not lighten their torment, and the statement **{Whenever it subsides}** implies that the torment is lightened at that time. We reply: *Whenever it subsides* implies the stillness of the fire's flame, but this does not indicate that the torment is lightened at that time.
Third Discussion: The statement **{Whenever it subsides, We increase the blaze for them}** implies that the second state must be greater than the first state. If that is the case, the first state, relative to the second state, is a lightening. The response is that the increase occurred in the first state, [and it was] less severe than the increase occurring in the second state, so the torment was severe. It is also possible to say that when the torment becomes immense, the difference occurring in its moments is not perceived—may Allah protect us from it.
When the Almighty mentioned the types of this warning, He said: {That is their recompense because they disbelieved}. The bā’ in {because they disbelieved} is the bā’ of causality, and it is proof for those who say that action is the cause ('illah) of the recompense. And Allah knows best.