| Fāṭir: (37) And they will cry out therein...

Verse 37: {And they will cry out therein}

This means that their suffering will not be alleviated, even if they cry out and struggle.

It is not that God lessens [the punishment] from His bounty until they ask for it; rather, they ask and find nothing. Al-iṣṭirākh (crying out) is derived from al-ṣurākh (shouting), and shouting is the sound of the afflicted.

And His saying, Exalted is He: {Our Lord, take us out}

Their cry is this: they say, {Our Lord, take us out} because their cry is speech. This indicates that their affliction is punishment (taʿdhīb), not mere discipline (taʾdīb). This is because if one being disciplined says to his disciplinarian, "I will not return to what I did, and what I did was evil," the disciplinarian will leave him be. However, the one being punished will not.

The arrangement of this plea is excellent because after it was established that the punishment would not be entirely lightened, nor would they be pardoned, it is then stated that no promise from them will be accepted. This is because a prisoner might eventually be released without asking. If his stay is prolonged, he might request release without binding himself to any condition. If that does not work, he might bind himself to a condition and say, "Take me out, and I will do such and such."

Know that God, Exalted is He, has made clear that whoever is misguided in this world will also be misguided in the Hereafter, as He says: {And whoever is blind in this [life] - then in the Hereafter he will be blind}. Furthermore, they did not realize that returning to the world is distant and impossible based on the divine decree.

Based on this, they say: {We will do righteous deeds}, asserting this with certainty, without seeking help from God or attributing it to a partnership. They did not say, "The matter is in God's hands." So God tells them: If your reliance is upon yourselves, We have already granted you a lifespan sufficient for reflection, believing, and turning toward deeds.

And their saying: {other than what we used to do}

This points to the corruption of their deeds being evident to them. It is as if God, just as He did not guide them in the world, did not guide them in the Hereafter. They did not say, "Our Lord, increase the good deeds for the doers of good by Your grace, not by their knowledge." They are more in need of the lessening of punishment than they are of the multiplication of reward. So, do with us what You are worthy of, considering Your grace, and do not do with us what we are worthy of, considering Your justice. Look toward Your pouring forgiveness, and do not look toward our futile excuse.

Just as God guided the believer in the world, He guides him in the Hereafter, calling him with the plea closest to acceptance and praising him with the finest praise upon his return. They say: {All praise is due to God}, acknowledging their shortcomings, and {grateful} (shakūr), affirming that what reached them was beyond what they could have imagined. They say: {Admit us into the abode of permanence out of Your grace}, meaning, [our deeds are nothing] compared to God's blessings.

Contrast this with their plea: {Take us out, [that] we may do righteous deeds}, which is a turning away from glorifying Him and an evasion of admitting their inability to perform deeds commensurate with His greatness. Then, He established that He gave them what relates to the recipient of the long lifespan, and what relates to the doer within that lifespan, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was the exemplar of good deeds among them and the revealer of happiness.

So He said: {Did We not grant you a life long enough for whoever would remember to remember? And there came to you the Warner.}

The impediment [to belief] was either within them, preventing them from contemplating what God revealed, or it was with their guide, who did not recite to them what would guide them.

Then His saying, Exalted is He: {So taste! For the wrongdoers there is no helper.}

His saying {So taste!} indicates permanence and is an order of humiliation. For the wrongdoers—those who placed their deeds and words in the wrong context and offered excuses at the wrong time—there is no helper at the time of need to support them.

Some wise men said that the difference between His saying: {For the wrongdoers there is no helper} and {And the wrongdoers will have no supporters} (in Al 'Imran) might be that the wrongdoer here refers to the one characterized by compounded ignorance (al-jahl al-murakkab), who believes falsehood to be true in the world. {And he will have no helper from them} means no knowledge that benefits him in the Hereafter. What supports this is that God, Exalted is He, named the decisive proof (al-burhān) as sulṭān (authority/power), as He says: {Then bring forth your authority}. Authority is the strongest form of support, whether it means power or dominion, both of which provide aid. However, the truth is generalization: God does not help them, and there is no other helper, so they have no helper at all.

It can also be said that God, Exalted is He, said in Al 'Imran: {And the wrongdoers will have no supporters}, and {And who can guide those whom God has sent astray? And they will have no helpers}. But here He says: {For the wrongdoers there is no helper}. This means this is the time when they are actually in the Fire. Each one of them has despaired of many whom they expected help from, and only their expectation from God remains. So He says: {You have no helper} at all. There, the matter was recounted either in the world or at the beginning of the gathering [of souls], so what they expected help from—their deities—was negated.

Verse 38: {Indeed, God is the Knower of the unseen [aspects] of the heavens and the earth. Indeed, He is Knowing of the innermost thoughts in the breasts.}

Then His saying, Exalted is He: {Indeed, God is the Knower of the unseen [aspects] of the heavens and the earth. Indeed, He is Knowing of the innermost thoughts in the breasts.}