Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:4
To Him is your return all together. [It is] the promise of Allah [which is] truth. Indeed, He begins the [process of] creation and then repeats it that He may reward those who have believed and done righteous deeds, in justice. But those who disbelieved will have a drink of scalding water and a painful punishment for what they used to deny.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the words of Allah the Exalted: إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقًّا إِنَّهُ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ لِيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ بِالْقِسْطِ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ وَعَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ
(To Him is the return of you all — a promise of Allah, in truth. Verily, He begins the creation, then He brings it back, that He may reward those who believe and do righteous deeds with justice. And those who disbelieve, for them is a drink of boiling water and a painful punishment, because of what they used to disbelieve.) [10:4]
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah the Exalted says: To your Lord — whose nature He, the Glorious, described in the preceding verse — is your return, O people, on the Day of Resurrection, all of you together. (21) وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقًّا — "a promise of Allah, in truth" — and He places وَعْدَ اللَّهِ as a verbal noun (maṣdar) deriving from إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ, for therein lies the meaning of "the promise." The meaning is: Allah promises you that He will bring you to life after your death — a true promise. For this reason وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقًّا stands in the accusative.
إِنَّهُ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ — "Verily, He begins the creation, then He brings it back" — Allah the Exalted says: Verily, your Lord begins the bringing forth of the creation, the calling of it into being, and the originating of it. ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ — "then He brings it back" — that is to say: then He brings it back and causes it to exist alive as it was on the day He began to create it, after its perishing and its decay. (22) Thus:
17548 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ: he said: "He brings him to life, then He causes him to die." Abū Jaʿfar says: And I think he also said: "then He brings him to life."
17549 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAbdullāh ibn Rajāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh ibn Kathīr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ: he said: "He brings him to life, then He causes him to die, then He brings him to life."
17550 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning إِنَّهُ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ: "He brings him to life, then He causes him to die, then He begins him anew, then He brings him to life."
17551 — [...] He said: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — with the like import.
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The Qurʾān reciters of the great cities read this as إِنَّهُ يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ — with a kasra under the alif of إنه — as a new, independent sentence.
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It has been related that Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī read it as أَنَّهُ — with a fatḥa under the alif of أنه.
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It is as though he intended: "truly, in truth — that He begins the creation, then brings it back" — whereby أنّ then stands in the nominative, as the poet said: (23)
Aḥaqqan ʿibāda Llāhi an lasta zāʾiran — rubā jannatin illā ʿalayya raqībun (24)
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His words لِيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ بِالْقِسْطِ — "that He may reward those who believe and do righteous deeds with justice" — that is to say: then He brings him back after his death into the state in which he was before his death, at his resurrection from his grave. لِيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا — that He may reward those who have affirmed Allah and His Messenger and who have performed that which Allah commanded them in their actions, and have abstained from what He forbade them, for their good deeds (25) — بِالْقِسْطِ — that is to say: that He may grant them, for the goodness of the deeds they performed in the worldly life, the goodness of the reward and the excellence of the recompense in the Hereafter. And that is the "qisṭ." The "qisṭ" is justice and equity. (26) Thus:
17552 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning بِالْقِسْطِ: "with justice."
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His words وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ — "and those who disbelieve, for them is a drink of boiling water" — by this Allah the Glorious has begun a new report concerning what Allah has prepared for those who disbelieve of punishment (ʿadhāb). And therein lies the meaning of connection with the preceding, for Allah the Exalted made the return of all of them — both the disbelievers and the believers — to Him the subject. Then He announced that their return is so that He may recompense each group according to what it has performed: the doer of good with good, and the doer of evil with evil. But because, prior to the newly begun report about what is prepared for the disbelievers of punishment, there was already present an indication that could lead the listener toward the intended meaning, he began the report anew — the intent being a connection — and said: The people who have denied Allah and His Messenger and have branded the signs of Allah as lies, لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ — for them is a drink in Hellfire (jahannam) مِنْ حَمِيمٍ — and that is a drink that has been brought to a boil and whose heat has become intense, to such a degree that — as is related from the Prophet ﷺ — when one of them brings it near to his mouth, the skin of his head falls off from it. And as Allah the Glorious describes it: كَالْمُهْلِ يَشْوِي الْوُجُوهَ — "like molten metal, which scalds the faces" [Sūrat al-Kahf: 29].
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The original form is "mafʿūl," converted to "faʿīl": it is in reality "maḥmūm" — that is to say: heated. And everything heated is called "ḥamīm" by the Arabs. (27)
Of this also is the verse of al-Muraqqish:
Wa-kullu yawmin lahā miqṭaratun — fīhā kibāʾun muʿaddun wa-ḥamīm (28)
By this he means by "ḥamīm" the heated water.
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His words عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ — "a painful punishment" — that is to say: and for them, in addition, is a punishment that causes pain (29) — apart from the drink of boiling water — because of what they used to disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger.
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Footnotes:
(21) See the explanation of "al-marjiʿ" in the foregoing, vol. 12: 287, note 1, and the sources mentioned there.
(22) See the explanation of "al-badʾ" and "al-ʿawd" in the foregoing, vol. 12: 382–388.
(23) The poet is unknown to me.
(24) In the printed edition it reads: "abā ḥabbatin illā ʿalā raqīb" — a corruption of what is in the manuscript, and it reads there, without dots: "ribāḥih". The correct reading is what I have established.
(25) See the explanation of "al-jazāʾ" in the foregoing registers of the language (jazā).
(26) See the explanation of "al-qisṭ" in the foregoing, vol. 12: 379, note 2, and the sources mentioned there.
(27) See the explanation of "ḥamīm" in the foregoing, vol. 11: 448–449.
(28) The verse and its commentary and explanation were treated earlier in vol. 11: 448; the narration there reads: "fī kulli mumsī".
(29) See the explanation of "alīm" in the foregoing registers of the language (alm).
