Tafseer of The Light · An-Noor · 24:25
That Day, Allah will pay them in full their deserved recompense, and they will know that it is Allah who is the perfect in justice.
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.
Allah, exalted is His praise, says: يَوْمَ تَشْهَدُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَلْسِنَتُهُمْ وَأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَرْجُلُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ (on the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet bear witness against them of what they used to do) — Allah will repay them their full account and their rightful recompense for their deeds.
The word al-dīn (الدين) means in this place: the account and the recompense. As ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiyah related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement يَوْمَئِذٍ يُوَفِّيهِمُ اللَّهُ دِينَهُمُ الْحَقَّ (on that Day Allah will repay them their rightful account): he said — that is to say: their account.
The Qurʾān reciters differ over the reading of the word الْحَقَّ (al-ḥaqq). The general body of Qurʾān reciters of the great cities read دِينَهُمُ الْحَقَّ with naṣb (accusative), as a qualifying attribute of al-dīn — as though it said: Allah repays them the recompense for their deeds in justice; al-ḥaqq is then brought in with the definite article and stands in naṣb just as al-dīn does. From Mujāhid it is related that he read: "yuwaffīhimu llāhu dīnahumu l-ḥaqqu" with rafʿ (nominative) of al-ḥaqq, so that it is an attribute of Allah.
This was related to us by Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, on the authority of Ḥumayd, on the authority of Mujāhid, that he read it with rafʿ of al-ḥaqq. Jarīr said: and I read it in the muṣḥaf of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: "yuwaffīhimu llāhu l-ḥaqqu dīnahum" (with al-ḥaqq before dīnahum).
The correct reading in our view is the reading which the reciters of the great cities maintain, namely the naṣb of al-ḥaqq as a consequence of the inflection of al-dīn, because the legitimate proofs (ḥujja) are unanimous upon that.
His statement وَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الْحَقُّ الْمُبِينُ (and they will know that Allah is the Manifest Truth) — Allah, exalted is His praise, says: on that Day they will know that Allah is the Truth who makes clear to them the reality of the punishment which He had promised them in the worldly life; at that moment doubt about it vanishes among the hypocrites (munāfiqūn) who in the worldly life doubted His promises.
