Tafsir of Al-Ahzab 33:66-68

Al-Ahzab (33): 66–68

When it was established that they would have no intercessor to ward off the punishment, it is then explained that even some of their own limbs will not defend them from the torment. This is unlike the punishment of this world, where a person wards off a blow to the face by using his hand as a shield, or bows his head to prevent his face from being struck.

In the Hereafter, {On the Day their faces will be turned over in the Fire} (66:33:66). What then do you think of the rest of their limbs, which served as a shield and protection for the face?

{They will say, "Our Lord, indeed we obeyed our masters and our great ones, and they led us astray from the [right] way.} (33:67)

They will regret and lament at a time when regret and lamentation are of no avail, because they have come to know that salvation belongs only to the obedient.

Then they say: {Indeed, we obeyed our masters and our great ones} (33:67). Meaning, instead of obeying Allah the Exalted, they obeyed the masters, and instead of obeying the Messenger, they obeyed the great ones, abandoning the obedience of the Master of masters and the greatest of the great. Thus, they exchanged the good for the evil. Consequently, they missed the good of Paradise and were subjected to the evil of the Fire.

Furthermore, they seek some satisfaction by demanding punishment for those who misled them, saying: {Our Lord, give them double the punishment and curse them with a great curse} (33:68).

In the Almighty's saying: {double} and {a great curse}, there is a subtle meaning. Supplication is only made when the thing being supplicated for has not yet occurred. Since the torment and the curse were already happening to them, their request was for something that was not yet fully realized: an increase in torment by saying {double}, and an increase in the curse by saying {a great curse}.