Say: “Which is better: that, or the paradise of immortality which the God-fearing have been promised as their reward and their ultimate abode?”
There they will have all they wish for, abiding there forever. It is a promise which your Lord must needs fulfill.
On the day He gathers them with all those they worship instead of God, He will ask: “Was it you who led these My servants astray, or did they by themselves stray from the right path?”
They will say: “Limitless are You in Your glory! It was never proper for us to take for our masters anyone but Yourself. But You allowed them and their fathers to enjoy (the pleasures of) life, until they forgot the Reminder. For they were people devoid of all good.”
(Then God will say): “Now have they denied all your assertions, and you can neither avert (your punishment) nor obtain help. Whoever of you does wrong, him shall We cause to taste grievous suffering.” (The Standard, Al-Furqan: 25: 15-19)
The verses that precede this passage speak about the suffering in hell and show it in full animation, eager to engulf those who deny the certainty of the Last Hour. “Nay! It is the Last Hour that they deny. For those who deny the Last Hour We have prepared a blazing fire. When it sees them from a far-off place, they will hear its fury and its raging sigh. And when, chained together, they are flung into a tight space within, they will pray for extinction there and then. (But they will be told): ‘Do not pray today for one single extinction, but pray for many extinctions!’” (Verses 11-14)
In contrast to such a fearful prospect, the surah portrays what is prepared in the hereafter for the God-fearing who are eager to meet their Lord and who believe in the Last Hour. Again, sarcasm is fully employed to make a telling effect on the unbelievers: “Say: Which is better: that, or the paradise of immortality which the God-fearing have been promised as their reward and their ultimate abode? There they will have all they wish for, abiding there forever. It is a promise which your Lord must needs fulfill.”
Which is better: the end of the unbelievers already described in the surah or the paradise God has promised to the believers.
He has indeed given them leave to ask Him about it, requesting the fulfillment of His promise, which is always honored. They are free to request there whatever they wish for. Can the two be compared? The question is put sarcastically to reply to their sarcasm leveled at the Prophet (peace be upon him).
The surah goes on to portray another scene of the Day of Judgment that is denied by the unbelievers. Now we see the unbelievers gathered together with their alleged deities, and they all stand before God for interrogation: “On the day He gathers them with all those they worship instead of God, He will ask: ‘Was it you who led these My servants astray, or did they by themselves stray from the right path?’ They will say: ‘Limitless are You in Your glory! It was never proper for us to take for our masters anyone but Yourself. But You allowed them and their fathers to enjoy (the pleasures of) life, until they forgot the Reminder. For they were people devoid of all good.’ (Then God will say): ‘Now have they denied all your assertions, and you can neither avert (your punishment) nor obtain help. Whoever of you does wrong, him shall We cause to taste grievous suffering.”
The ones who were worshiped may be their idols, or angels and jinn, and indeed everyone and everything that has ever been worshiped instead of God or alongside Him. God certainly knows all the answers, but the interrogation carried out when all creatures are gathered together, standing there in the open, means reproach and publicity.
As such the very interrogation is a method of fearful suffering. The answer comes from those who were worshiped. They declare their own submission to God Almighty, and that He is free of all that the unbelievers allege. They disclaim not merely any aspiration to Godhead, but also any thought on their part of taking for themselves any masters other than God. They also ridicule those ignorant people who associated partners with God and denied the Last Hour: “They will say: Limitless are You in Your glory! It was never proper for us to take for our masters anyone but Yourself. But You allowed them and their fathers to enjoy (the pleasures of) life, until they forgot the Reminder. For they were people devoid of all good.”
The enjoyment that people are allowed for a long time, inheriting it generation after generation, without acknowledgement of the One who gives such blessings or expressing thanks and gratitude to Him, has been their main preoccupation. They forgot to turn to the One who gives us everything we have, and thus their hearts became devoid of all goodness, barren, like a land with no fruit, vegetation or life.
At this point, the address is directed to those who worshiped such beings, emphasizing their humiliation: “Now have they denied all your assertions, and you can neither avert (your punishment) nor obtain help.” You cannot do anything for yourselves, neither avoiding the well-deserved punishment, nor getting support from anyone or any quarter.
All this is shown as a scene of the Day of Judgment which is held before our eyes. All of a sudden, the address is made to those unbelievers in their present condition here on earth: “Whoever of you does wrong, him shall We cause to taste grievous suffering.” Such is the Qur’anic method of addressing people’s hearts at the moment when they are ready to respond, influenced as they may be by the fearful scene already portrayed.