In the name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful
Children of Adam! Did I not enjoin on you that you should not worship Satan, as he is your open foe, and that you should worship Me alone? This is the straight path. “He had already led astray a great many of you. Could you not, then, use your reason? This, then, is the hell that you were repeatedly warned against: Endure it today for your persistent rejection (of the truth).” On that day We shall set a seal on their mouths, but their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will bear witness to whatever they have done. Had it been Our will, We could have blotted their eyes. They would have striven to find the way, but how could they have seen it? And had it been Our will, We could have paralyzed them, right in their places, so that they could not move forward or backward. If We grant long life to a human being, We also cause him to decline in his powers. Will they not use their reason? (Ya Seen 36: 60-68)
The surah gave us in the previous verses an image of how the God-fearing believers face the Day of Judgment, but it is a short and quick image. By contrast the surah dwells on the scene of reckoning faced by the others. It shows them as they are reproached and blamed for their misdeeds. They are reminded of God’s orders and how they were oblivious to them, listening instead to the whispers of Satan.
Contempt marks the treatment they receive. They are first told to stand aside, away from the believers. They are then addressed as “Children of Adam,” which is an address implying reproach: “Children of Adam! Did I not enjoin on you that you should not worship Satan, as he is your open foe.” It was Satan who caused the expulsion of their father, Adam, from heaven. He has declared his permanent hostility to them, yet they continue to worship him.
They were also enjoined to do something that was certain to set them on a straight path, leading to God’s pleasure and a happy end in the life to come: “You should worship Me alone. This is the straight path.” They are reminded that this enemy led astray many generations. Hence the rhetorical question: “Could you not, then, use your reason?” At the end of this very hard and humiliating position, the dreaded sentence is passed, given in overtones of reproach and derision: “This, then, is the hell that you were repeatedly warned against: Endure it today for your persistent rejection (of the truth).”
However, the scene does not end here. It moves on to provide a most singular image: “On that day We shall set a seal on their mouths, but their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will bear witness to whatever they have done.” Thus, they let each other down; their own bodies give witness against them; their personalities are torn apart with each part claiming that the other is lying. Each organ in their bodies returns to their Lord separately, in full submission to Him. This is a terrible scene, one that we can hardly contemplate.
The scene ends with the unbelievers in that state of tied tongues, speaking hands and legs giving witness. This is totally different from what they knew of their nature, and different from what they were expecting. Had God willed, He could have put them in a totally different situation, making them endure whatever hardship He wished to impose on them. The surah gives us here two examples of such hardships, making it clear that God could impose the same on anyone: “Had it been Our will, We could have blotted their eyes. They would have striven to find the way, but how could they have seen it? And had it been Our will, We could have paralyzed them, right in their places, so that they could not move forward or backward.”
These two examples combine ridicule with contempt: The former answers those who used to pour ridicule on the believers and the divine message, and the latter answers those who were contemptuous when addressed by the message. It was they who used to ask about the time when the promise of the hereafter would be fulfilled; implying that they did not believe it would ever come about. In the first example we see them blind, yet despite their blindness, they rush to find a way, pushing one another aside and in their haste many of them fall down. How could they see? In the second example, they are frozen like statues unable to move an inch. In both examples they appear like toys, inviting ridicule after they were the ones to pour ridicule on the believers and their faith.
All this takes place when the promise they used to hasten becomes due. Should they be left to live long on earth, they will end up in a miserable situation, when they will prefer for the promise to be hastened. They attain to old age with all its weaknesses, and they suffer dementia and retardation in feeling and thought. “If We grant long life to a human being, We also cause him to decline in his powers. Will they not use their reason?”
Old age is a second childhood, but without a child’s sweet innocence. An aged person moves backward, forgetting what he has learned, losing physical and mental powers, unable to endure much, until he is no more than a child. However, a child is always met with a smile when it does something silly. An aged person receives no support, unless it comes from a sense of pity and duty. He is also ridiculed whenever he betrays an element of childishness or stupidity.
Both fates await those who persist in rejecting the truth. They are the ones that deprive themselves of the blessings of faith.
In this final part, the surah reviews all the issues it tackled earlier: The nature of revelation; God and His oneness, and resurrection. These are reviewed in separate sections and shown with strong effects coupled with a clear rhythm. The overall aim is to show how God’s hand controls everything in the universe. This concept is summed up in the last verse of the surah: “Limitless, then, in His glory is He in whose hand rests the mighty dominion over all things, and to Him you all will be brought back.” (Verse 83) His hand, strong and innovative, has created cattle and subjected them to man, and created man from a mere gamete. The same hand can also give life to bones that had broken into dust, just like it originated them in the first instance. It was this hand that produced fire from the green tree and brought the heavens and the earth into being. In the end, it has control of everything in the universe. This, then, is the gist of this final part of the surah.
