In the name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent
The wrongdoers say: “The man you follow is certainly bewitched.” See to what they liken you. They have certainly gone astray and are unable to find a way back.
Blessed is He who, if it be His will, shall give you better things than these; gardens through which running waters flow, and shall give you palaces too.
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!” (The Standard, Al-Furqan: 25: 8-14)
This passage starts with a false accusation the unbelievers repeated time after time against the Prophet (peace be upon him). It is a blatant lie which the Qur’an mentions here as well as in Surah 17, The Night Journey. In both surahs the Qur’an gives the same reply to this accusation which it quotes in exactly the same words in both surahs. “The wrongdoers say: ‘The man you follow is certainly bewitched.’ See to what they liken you. They have certainly gone astray and are unable to find a way back.”
Both surahs deal with more or less the same subject, tackling it in similar fashion. Needless to say, they repeat such an allegation as a personal attack against the Prophet and to detract from his social standing. They liken him to a man who is bewitched, saying things that normal people do not say. Yet at the same time it implies recognition that what he says is unusual or unfamiliar in the sense that it is above human standards. The reply the surah gives wonders at their attitude: “See to what they liken you.” They liken him to bewitched people at one time, and they accuse him of false fabrication at another, and they compare him at times to those who relate legends. All this is wrong, going far beyond the truth. They have missed every road that leads to the truth and were left in error: “They have certainly gone astray and are unable to find a way back.”
This argument is ended on a note that shows the stupidity of their suggestions. They propose that the Prophet should be given some luxuries, thinking that a true messenger of God should have plenty of such worldly comforts as a treasure or a garden providing him with his needs of food. Had God so willed, he would have given him much more than everything they suggest: “Blessed is He who, if it be His will, shall give you better things than these; gardens through which running waters flow, and shall give you palaces too.” But God has willed to give His Messenger what is much better and more valuable than gardens and palaces. He has given him a direct relation with the One who gives all such luxuries, bestowing on him His care and guidance. He has enjoyed this relationship which is far superior to any worldly comfort or luxury, great as it may be.
At this point in the discussion of their wrongful statements about God and His Messenger, the surah reveals another dimension of their disbelief. They deny the Last Hour. Hence, they have no qualms about making baseless accusations or fabrications. They do not fear that they will be facing God who will hold them to account for their lies and fabrications. We see them here as they stand on the Day of Judgment when hardened hearts are shaken to their depth. They are made to see what awaits them there in comparison with the happiness that is prepared for the believers: “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!” 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 fulfil.”
They have indeed denied the Last Hour going to great extents in their disbelief. The Qur’anic expression implies this as it puts aside all that was said earlier in order to magnify that extent: “Nay! It is the Last Hour that they deny.” It then paints the destiny that awaits those who are guilty of such a terrible thing. It is a blazing fire made ready to receive them: “For those who deny the Last Hour We have prepared a blazing fire.”
Personification, or the representation of inanimate objects or states as having life of their own, is a special artistic feature the Qur’an employs to such perfection that defies imitation. It makes such objects so alive that we take them as such.
Here we are in front of the blazing fire which is now granted life. It looks and sees at a distance those who have denied the Last Hour. It is angry, furious with them, raging to engulf them. As they proceed toward it, it wants to take them all at once. It is a fearful scene that leaves even the most courageous badly shaken.
Then we see them having arrived there. They are not left alone facing such a raging fire, trying to avoid it without success. They are thrown in it, with their hands and feet chained together, placed in a tight area to increase their misery and make it impossible for them to free themselves from their chains. Then we see them, having despaired of breaking loose, realizing that their stress is endless. Therefore, they pray for their own destruction as a way out of their great misery: “When, chained together, they are flung into a tight space within, they will pray for extinction there and then.” Their own destruction seems to them the best that they could hope for as a way of escaping their unbearable torment. But they soon hear the answer to their prayers. It is a sarcastic answer that fills them with bitterness: “Do not pray today for one single extinction, but pray for many extinctions!” To be destroyed and made extinct once is not sufficient to redeem them. Hence, the sarcastic suggestion.
