Tafseer of The Groups · Az-Zumar · 39:60
And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who lied about Allah [with] their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a residence for the arrogant?
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, the Exalted: وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ تَرَى الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ وُجُوهُهُمْ مُسْوَدَّةٌ أَلَيْسَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِلْمُتَكَبِّرِينَ (60) ("And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who lied about Allāh, their faces having turned black. Is there not in Hell an abode for the arrogant?") (60).
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: ( وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ تَرَى ) ("And on the Day of Resurrection you will see"), O Muḥammad, these ( الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ ) ("who lied about Allāh") among your people, and who claimed that He has a child and that He has an associate, and who worshipped gods besides Him ( وُجُوهُهُمْ مُسْوَدَّةٌ ) ("their faces having turned black").
As for "the faces" (al-wujūh): although it is in the nominative (rafʿ) by reason of "having turned black" (musawwadda), there is nonetheless implied in it a sense of the accusative (naṣb), for it together with its predicate is the complement of "you will see" (tarā). Had His word "musawwadda" been placed before "the faces," it would have stood in the accusative. And if there were in the discourse — not in the Qurʾān — an element that would place "the faces having turned black" in the accusative, while "having turned black" comes at the end, that would be permissible, as the poet said:
"Let me be; truly, your command will not be obeyed, and you have not found me one whose forbearance is wasted."
He placed "forbearance" (al-ḥilm) and "wasted" (al-muḍāʿ) in the accusative on the basis of the recurring governing force of "you have found me" (alfaytanī). Thus do the Arabs do with everything that requires a subject (ism) and a predicate (khabar), such as ẓanna ("to suppose") and its sister verbs. And in "musawwadda" the Arabs have two linguistic variants: musawwadda and musawādda. Among the people of the Ḥijāz one says, according to what is related of them: "his face has turned black (iswādda)," "turned red (iḥmārra)," and "turned grey (ishhābba)." And some of the grammarians of Basra mentioned, on the authority of certain of them, that he said: the form ifʿālla occurs only for that which has a single color, such as al-ashhab (the grey); he said: and it does not occur for something like al-aḥmar (the red), because al-ashhab is a color that comes about [gradually], whereas al-aḥmar does not come about [gradually].
And His word: ( أَلَيْسَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِلْمُتَكَبِّرِينَ ) ("Is there not in Hell an abode for the arrogant?"). He says: is there not in Hell (jahannam) a refuge and a dwelling place for whoever has arrogantly exalted himself above Allāh, and who refrained from professing His oneness and from submitting to His obedience in that which He commanded him and forbade him?
-------------------------
Footnotes:
(3) The verse is by ʿAdī ibn Zayd, as al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān. It is among the verse lines in the Kitāb of Sībawayh, and among the [grammatical] witnesses [in the works on language]. The point of the witness in it is that his word "ḥilmī" is a badal al-ishtimāl (substitution by inclusion) for the personal pronoun in "alfaytanī." Ibn Jinnī said: the badal of the pronoun of the first and second person is permissible only when it is a badal of a part or a badal al-ishtimāl, as you say: "I marveled at you, [at] your intellect" and "I struck you, [on] your head." Sībawayh attributed the verse to a man of Khathʿam or Bajīla, and Ibn al-Sarrāj followed him in that in his Uṣūl. Al-Farrāʾ and al-Zajjāj attributed it to ʿAdī ibn Zayd al-ʿIbādī, and that is the correct view.
