Tafseer of The Groups · Az-Zumar · 39:31
Then indeed you, on the Day of Resurrection, before your Lord, will dispute.
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.
Then on the Day of Resurrection you will surely dispute with one another before your Lord (39:31). He says: then all of you, believers and unbelievers, on the Day of Resurrection will dispute with one another before your Lord, and He will take, on behalf of the wronged among you, his due from the wrongdoer, and judge between you all according to the truth.
The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed over the interpretation of this. Some of them said: what is meant by it is the dispute of the believers and the unbelievers, and the dispute of the wronged and the wrongdoer.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to us, 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 thumma innakum yawma al-qiyāmati ʿinda rabbikum takhtaṣimūna, he says: the truthful one disputes with the liar, the wronged with the wrongdoer, the rightly guided with the misguided, and the weak with the arrogant.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His saying thumma innakum yawma al-qiyāmati ʿinda rabbikum takhtaṣimūna, he said: the people of Islam and the people of unbelief.
Ibn al-Barqī related to me, saying: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us, saying: Ibn al-Darāwardī related to us, saying: Mohammed ibn ʿAmr related to me, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥāṭib ibn al-Zubayr, who said: when this verse was sent down: Indeed, you will die and indeed, they will die. Then on the Day of Resurrection you will surely dispute with one another before your Lord, al-Zubayr said: O Messenger of Allah, will the things that were between us in this worldly life, of minor sins, be reckoned against us? The Prophet ﷺ said: "Yes, until every rightful claimant is given his due."
And others said: what is meant by it is rather the dispute of the people of Islam.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, who said: this verse was sent down concerning us, and we did not know what its interpretation was until the discord (fitna) broke out. Then we said: this is what our Lord promised us, that we would dispute with one another in Then on the Day of Resurrection you will surely dispute with one another before your Lord.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAwn related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said: when there was sent down Indeed, you will die and indeed, they will die. Then on the Day of Resurrection you will surely... — the verse — they said: what is our dispute among ourselves, while we are brothers? He said: but when ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān was killed, they said: this is our dispute among ourselves.
It was related to me on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His saying thumma innakum yawma al-qiyāmati ʿinda rabbikum takhtaṣimūna, he said: they are the people of the prayer direction (ahl al-qibla).
The most correct of the statements concerning this is that one says: what is meant by it is: indeed, you, O Mohammed, will die, and indeed, you, O people, will die, and then all of you, O people, will dispute with one another before your Lord — your believers and your unbelievers, your righteous and your unrighteous, your wrongdoers and your wronged — until for each of you his due is taken from the one who owes it to him.
And we have called this statement the most correct only because Allah, by His saying thumma innakum yawma al-qiyāmati ʿinda rabbikum takhtaṣimūna, addressed all of His servants in general, and did not single out some of them over others in it. So it remains in its generality, just as Allah stated it in general terms. For a verse may be sent down concerning a particular meaning, and then everything that shares the same meaning as that concerning which it was sent down falls under its ruling.
