Tafsir of Al-Mu'minoon 23:35

"Does he promise you that when you..."

The particle inna (in innakum) is repeated for emphasis. This is stylistically sound because the adverbial phrase (idha muttum) separates the first inna from the second.

Mukhrajun (you will be brought forth) is the predicate of the first inna. Alternatively, the phrase annakum mukhrajun is treated as the subject, and idha muttum as the predicate, meaning: "Your being brought forth is [contingent upon] when you die." Then, the entire clause is made the predicate of the first inna. Another view is that innakum mukhrajun is raised by a verb that acts as the apodosis (consequence) of the conditional; as if to say: "When you die, your being brought forth occurs," and then this conditional sentence is made the predicate of innakum. In the reading of Ibn Mas‘ud, it is: "Does he promise you when you die?"

"Hayhat" (Far, far is that which you are promised)

It is read with fathah, kasrah, and dammah on the ta’, both with and without tanwin, and with a sukun as in the form of a pause.

If you ask: "That which you are promised" is what is being deemed impossible, and it should grammatically be the subject raised by hayhat, just as it is raised in the verse: "Far, far is the 'Aqiq and its people." So what is this lam (in li-ma tu‘adun)?

I say: Al-Zajjaj said in his commentary: It means "remoteness for what you are promised," or "a distance for what you are promised" for those who use tanwin, treating it as a verbal noun (masdar). There is another perspective: the lam is to clarify what is being deemed impossible after the initial exclamation of impossibility, just as the lam appears in "Hayta laka" (Yusuf: 23) to clarify the object of the call.

"It is but our worldly life"

This pronoun (hiya) has no known referent except for what follows it as an explanation. Its origin is: "There is no life except our worldly life." Then, "It is but our worldly life—we die and we live, and we will not be resurrected" was placed in the position of "life," because the predicate indicates and clarifies it. Similar to this is the saying: "It is the soul that bears what it is burdened with," and "It is the Arabs who say what they wish."

The meaning is: There is no life except this life. This is because the negative in entered upon hiya, which carries the meaning of "life" as a generic noun, thereby negating it. It thus functions like the la that negates the genus.

"We die and we live" means: some die and some are born; one generation passes away and another comes. Then they said: "He is but a man who has fabricated a lie against Allah" regarding his claim of being a prophet, and regarding the resurrection that follows us, "and we are not believers [in him]."

"He said, 'My Lord, support me because they have denied me.' He said, 'In a little while, they will surely become regretful.' So the blast seized them in truth, and We made them as scum. So away with the wrongdoing people."