Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:185
Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your [full] compensation on the Day of Resurrection. So he who is drawn away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has attained [his desire]. And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion.
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 His word: كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ وَإِنَّمَا تُوَفَّوْنَ أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَمَنْ زُحْزِحَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ (185) (Every soul shall taste death, and only on the Day of Resurrection will you be paid your rewards in full. Whoever, then, is kept away from the Fire (al-nār) and admitted into Paradise (janna) has truly triumphed. And the worldly life is nothing but a deceptive enjoyment.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means—exalted is His mention: that the fate of these liars against Allah among the Jews, who deny His messenger, whose characteristics He described and of whose insolence toward their Lord He informed—and the fate of all others among His creatures, exalted is His mention, and the return of them all—lies with Him. For He has decreed death over them all as inescapable. Thus He said to His Prophet ﷺ: Let not the denial of those who deny you, O Muḥammad, among these Jews and others, grieve you, nor the slanderous fabrications of those who fabricate against Me; for before you, messengers were already denied who came with signs and proofs to those to whom they were sent, in the same manner as you came to those to whom you were sent. In them you have, therefore, an example by which you may console yourself. And the fate of those who deny you and fabricate against Me, and of the others, and their return, lies with Me. So I shall pay every soul among them the recompense of its deeds in full on the Day of Resurrection, just as He, exalted is His praise, said: "and only on the Day of Resurrection will you be paid your rewards in full," that is: the rewards of your deeds—if good, then good; if evil, then evil. "Whoever, then, is kept away from the Fire," He says: whoever is removed from the Fire (al-nār) and kept removed from it, "has truly triumphed," He says: he has truly escaped and attained his goal.
Concerning this one says: "fāza fulān bi-ṭalibatihi, yafūzu fawzan wa-mafāzan wa-mafāzatan" (so-and-so attained his objective, he triumphs with victory), when he reaches it.
The meaning of that is: whoever is kept away from the Fire and removed from it and admitted into Paradise has truly escaped and attained the great honor. "And the worldly life is nothing but a deceptive enjoyment," He says: and the enjoyments of the world and its desires and what it contains of adornment and splendor "are nothing but a deceptive enjoyment," He says: nothing but an enjoyment by which the delusion and the transient deception let you take pleasure—a deception that has no reality at the trial and no permanence at the test. You take pleasure, therefore, in that with which the delusion lets you enjoy your world, but afterward it turns against you with calamities, adversity, and misery. He, exalted is His mention, says: Do not rely upon the world so as to find rest in it, for in regard to it you are only in a delusion with which you take pleasure, and afterward you will leave it after a short while.
Concerning the explanation of that, there has been transmitted what follows:
8314 - al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Bukayr ibn al-Akhnas, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, concerning His word: "and the worldly life is nothing but a deceptive enjoyment," he said: It is like the provision of the shepherd, who takes along the handful of dates, or the bit of flour, or the little upon which he drinks milk.
It is as though Ibn Sābiṭ, in this explanation, proceeded from the notion that the meaning of the verse is: and the worldly life is nothing but a meager enjoyment, which does not bring the one who enjoys it to his destination and does not suffice for his journey. This explanation, although it is one of the possible directions of interpretation—yet the correct view concerning it is what we have stated. For "al-ghurūr" (the delusion) in the language of the Arabs is precisely deception. And since that is so, there is no reason to bend it toward the meaning of meagerness, for a thing may be meager while its owner is not in deception or delusion. And as for that in which one is in delusion: neither the little nor the much of it is justified for the one who is in delusion concerning it.
And "al-ghurūr" (with the ghīn voweled with ḍamma) is a verbal noun (maṣdar) of the expression: "gharra-nī fulān fa-huwa yaghurru-nī ghurūran" (so-and-so deluded me, he deludes me with delusion), with a ḍamma on the "ghīn." When, however, one pronounces the "ghīn" of "al-gharūr" with a fatḥa, then it is a designation of the deluding Satan (al-gharūr), who deludes the son of Adam until he causes him to fall into disobedience toward Allah, whereby he deserves His punishment.
And already:
8315 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbda and ʿAbd al-Raḥīm related to us, both saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū Salama related to us, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: The place of a whip in Paradise is better than the world and all that is in it. And recite, if you wish: "and the worldly life is nothing but a deceptive enjoyment."