Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:158
And whether you die or are killed, unto Allah you will be gathered.
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 discourse on the explanation of His saying: وَلَئِنْ مُتُّمْ أَوْ قُتِلْتُمْ لإِلَى اللَّهِ تُحْشَرُونَ (158) (And if you die or are killed, you will surely be gathered unto Allah. (3:158))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means thereby: and if you die or are killed, O believers, then with Allah is your return and your gathering-place, and He will requite you according to your deeds. Therefore prefer that which brings you nearer to Allah and which makes His good pleasure incumbent upon you, and which brings you nearer to the Garden — namely jihād in the path of Allah and acting in obedience to Him — over inclining toward the worldly life and what you amass therein of its perishable trifles, which do not remain for you but vanish from you, and over abandoning obedience to Allah and the jihād. For that distances you from your Lord, and makes His displeasure incumbent upon you, and brings you nearer to the Fire.
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And in the same sense as what we have said about that, Ibn Isḥāq said:
8118 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: "and if you die or are killed," whichever of the two it may be, "you will surely be gathered unto Allah," that is to say: that with Allah is the return, so let not the worldly life deceive you and let it not delude you thereby, and let the jihād and that to which Allah has urged you therein be more precious to you than that worldly life. (1)
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And the "lām" was inserted into His saying "you will surely be gathered unto Allah (la-ilā Allāh tuḥsharūn)" on account of its insertion into His saying "and if (wa-la-in)." And had the "lām" been deferred to His saying "gathered (tuḥsharūn)," it would have brought about therein the heavy "nūn," just as you say in speech: "if you do good to me, I shall surely do good to you (la-uḥsinanna)" with a doubled nūn. And likewise would have been His saying: and if you die or are killed, you will surely be gathered unto Allah (la-tuḥsharunna). But when there was a separation between the "lām" and "tuḥsharūn" by the particle (al-ṣifa, the preposition), (2) it was inserted into the particle and "tuḥsharūn" remained intact, so that the heavy "nūn" was not inserted into it, just as you say in speech: "if you do good to me, then I shall do good to you (la-ilayka uḥsin)" without the doubled "nūn."
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The footnotes:
(1) The report 8118 — Sīrat Ibn Hishām 3: 123, and it is the continuation of the reports the last of which is 8117.
(2) In the printed edition: "when there was a separation (ḥīza) between the lām...," and in the manuscript: "and when (ḥīna)...," and the correct reading of it is what I have established. And "al-ṣifa" is the preposition; see what came earlier, 1: 299, note: 1, and the remaining indexes of terms in the preceding volumes.
