Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:56
He will say, "By Allah, you almost ruined me.
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.
His saying تَاللَّهِ إِنْ كِدْتَ لَتُرْدِينِ ("By Allah, you had almost brought me to ruin") means: when he saw his companion in the Fire, he said: by Allah, in the worldly life you had almost cast me into destruction by turning me away from belief in the resurrection, the reward, and the punishment.
And something close to what we have said about this is what the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) have said.
* Mention of those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning his saying إِنْ كِدْتَ لَتُرْدِينِ ("you had almost brought me to ruin"); he said: that is to say: you had almost cast me into destruction. From this it is said: "ardā fulān fulānan" — when he destroys someone; and "radiya fulān" — when he perishes, as al-Aʿshā said:
"Did you fear ruin for me in my wanderings, while many a one perishes without even leaving his dwelling?"
By his words "wa-kam min radin" ("how many a one who perishes") he means: how many a lost one.
[The footnotes of the edition — a philological exposition by al-Farrāʾ on the reading هَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُطَّلِعُونَ فَاطَّلَعَ and grammatical remarks on the attachment of pronouns, as well as the attribution of the verse to al-Aʿshā ibn Qays ibn Thaʿlaba from a long mīm-rhymed ode in praise of Qays ibn Maʿdīkarib — belong to the editorial apparatus and not to the text of Ṭabarī himself.]
Al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān concerning هَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُطَّلِعُونَ ("Will you look down?"): this is a man among the inhabitants of the Garden (janna) who had a brother belonging to the unbelievers (kuffār), and he wished to see his place. Allah permits it to him, and he looks down into the Fire (al-nār) and addresses him; and when he sees him, he says: تَاللَّهِ إِنْ كِدْتَ لَتُرْدِينِ ("By Allah, you had almost brought me to ruin"). And in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh — that is, Ibn Masʿūd — it stands: إِنْ كِدْتَ لَتُغْوِينِ ("you had almost led me astray"), وَلَوْلا رَحْمَةُ رَبِّي لَكُنْتُ مِنَ الْمُحْضَرِينَ ("and had it not been for the mercy of my Lord, I would have been among those brought forward") — that is to say: brought forward with you into the Fire.