Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:163
Except he who is to [enter and] burn in the Hellfire.
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.
إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("except him who will burn in the Hellfire") means: except one whom it was established in My foreknowledge that he would burn in the Hellfire.
And it has been said: the meaning of عَلَيْهِ ("over him") in His saying مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him") has the meaning of "bihi" ("through him / concerning him").
And approximately the same as what we have said about this, the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) have said.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying فَإِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ ("Indeed, you and what you worship, you cannot tempt anyone against Him"); he says: you will not go astray, and no one will go astray through you, except him concerning whom I have already decreed that he will burn in the Hellfire.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire"); he says: you cannot tempt anyone through your idols, except him for whom it was already foreordained that he will burn in the Hellfire.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Khālid, saying: I said to al-Ḥasan concerning His saying مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire"): except him for whom Allah has decreed that he will burn in the Hellfire.
ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to us, saying: Zayd ibn Abī al-Zarqāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Salama, on the authority of Ḥumayd, saying: I asked al-Ḥasan about the saying of Allah مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire"); he said: you cannot lead anyone astray thereby, except him for whom it lay in the foreknowledge of Allah that he will burn in the Hellfire.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire"): except him for whom it is preordained that he will burn in the Hellfire.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, concerning the ten men who came in to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz — and they were all orators — and they spoke; then ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz spoke something, and we thought that he spoke something with which he refuted what we held in hand. He said to us: do you know the interpretation of this verse: فَإِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("Indeed, you and what you worship, you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire")? He said: you and the gods that you worship are not the ones who can tempt anyone thereby, except him concerning whom I have decreed that he will burn in the Hellfire.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("except him who will burn in the Hellfire"); he said: you cannot lead anyone astray, except him for whom it is written that he will burn in the Hellfire.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning فَإِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ ("Indeed, you and what you worship") up to His words صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("will burn in the Hellfire"); he says: with this falsehood of yours you cannot lead astray any of My servants, except him who follows you in the deeds of the Fire.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him"): that is, lead astray, إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("except him who will burn in the Hellfire"): except him for whom Allah has written that he will burn in the Hellfire.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His saying مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire"); he says: with your gods you cannot lead anyone astray, except him for whom the wretchedness was already foreordained and who will burn in the Hellfire.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying فَإِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ بِفَاتِنِينَ إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالِ الْجَحِيمِ ("Indeed, you and what you worship, you cannot tempt anyone against Him, except him who will burn in the Hellfire"); he says: you cannot tempt or lead anyone astray thereby, except him concerning whom Allah has decreed that he will burn in the Hellfire, except him concerning whom it is already decreed that he is among the inhabitants of the Fire.
And it has been said: بِفَاتِنِينَ ("tempters") is derived from "fatantu, aftinu"; and that is the language of the people of the Ḥijāz. But the people of Najd say: "aftantuhu fa-anā uftinuhu" ("I tempted him, so I tempt him"). And it has been related from al-Ḥasan that he read: إِلا مَنْ هُوَ صَالُ الْجَحِيمِ with a ḍamma (-u) on the lām of "ṣāl". If by that he intended the plural — as the poet said:
"When Ḥātim — my cousin — is found, our glory is he, with whom all together speak (ajmaʿīnā)" —
where he said "ajmaʿīnā" and not "takallamū" ("they spoke"), and as one says about men: "man huwa ikhwatuka" ("who are your brothers"), where one lets "huwa" refer to the indefinite noun and brings out its verb in the plural — then that is an acceptable manner, even though another manner is more eloquent. And if by that he intended the singular, then that, in the judgment of the grammarians, is a grammatical error (laḥn), for it is among them an error to say "hādhā rāmun wa-qāḍun" [instead of rāmin wa-qāḍin], unless one has heard from the Arabs concerning it an inverted (maqlūba) linguistic form, like their saying "shāku al-silāḥ" alongside "shākī al-silāḥ", and "ʿātha" alongside "ʿathā", and "ʿāqa" alongside "ʿaqā"; in that case it would be a [valid] linguistic form. But I have not heard anyone mention that this was heard from the Arabs.