Tafseer of Crouching · Al-Jaathiya · 45:21
Or do those who commit evils think We will make them like those who have believed and done righteous deeds - [make them] equal in their life and their death? Evil is that which they judge.
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.
And His word: أَمْ حَسِبَ الَّذِينَ اجْتَرَحُوا السَّيِّئَاتِ ("Or do those who commit evil deeds suppose…"). The Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed, says: Or do those who in the worldly life committed wicked deeds, who denied the messengers of Allah, who opposed the command of their Lord, and who worshipped others besides Him, suppose that We will in the Hereafter make them equal to those who believed in Allah, held His messengers to be truthful, and performed righteous works, and who thereby obeyed Allah and rendered their worship purely to Him, without the idols and false gods alongside Him? By no means. Never would Allah do such a thing. He has assuredly made a distinction between the two groups: He placed the party of faith (īmān) in the Garden (janna), and the party of unbelief (kufr) in the blazing Fire.
Thus Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: أَمْ حَسِبَ الَّذِينَ اجْتَرَحُوا السَّيِّئَاتِ ("Or do those who commit evil deeds suppose…") — the entire āya. By my life, the people were already divided in the worldly life, and they were divided at death, and so they differed in their final destination.
And His word: سَوَاءً مَحْيَاهُمْ وَمَمَاتُهُمْ ("…equal in their life and their death"). The reciters (qurrāʾ) differed in the reading of His word (سَوَاء). Most of the reciters of Medina and Basra and some of the reciters of Kufa read it (سَوَاءٌ) in the nominative (rafʿ), whereby according to them the predicate ends at His word كَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ("…like those who believe"). They made the predicate of His word أَنْ نَجْعَلَهُمْ ("…that We make them") to be His word كَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ("…like those who believe and perform righteous works"), and then began a new statement about the equality of the condition of the believer's life and his death, and the unbeliever's life and his death. Thus they read His word (سَوَاءٌ) in the nominative as the commencement of a new sentence in this meaning. To this meaning a group of the people of taʾwīl (exegesis) directed their interpretation.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: سَوَاءً مَحْيَاهُمْ وَمَمَاتُهُمْ ("…equal in their life and their death"), he said: The believer is in the worldly life and in the Hereafter a believer, and the unbeliever is in the worldly life and in the Hereafter an unbeliever.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, on the authority of Shaybān, on the authority of Layth, concerning His word: سَوَاءً مَحْيَاهُمْ وَمَمَاتُهُمْ ("…equal in their life and their death"), he said: The believer is raised as a believer, in life and in death, and the unbeliever as an unbeliever, in life and in death.
When (سواء) is read in the nominative, the utterance may also carry a meaning other than this which we have related from Mujāhid and Layth, namely that it is directed toward: Or do those who committed the wicked deeds suppose that We will make them and the believers equal in life and death — in the sense of: they are not equal. Then (سواء) is put in the nominative in this meaning, because it is not declinable (lā yanṣarif), as one says: "I passed by a man whose father is better than you" and "whose brother suffices you" (ḥasbuka akhūhu), whereby one puts ḥasbuka and khayr in the nominative because they belong to the category of nouns. If in their place a verb in the form of a noun were to fall, it could only stand in the accusative. So too is it with His word (سواءٌ). Most of the reciters of Kufa read it (سَوَاءٌ) in the accusative (naṣb), with the meaning: Do they suppose that We will make them and those who believe and perform righteous works equal?
The correct judgment concerning this, in my view, is that they are two readings well known in the recitation of the regions, and that the scholars of the Qurʾān have recited according to each of the two, and that both are correct in meaning. With whichever of the two the reciter recites, he has hit upon the correct.
The scholars of the Arabic language differed over the ground for the accusative and the nominative of His word (سَوَاءٌ). Some grammarians of Basra said: سَوَاءً مَحْيَاهُمْ وَمَمَاتُهُمْ stands in the nominative. And some of them said: Life and death apply wholly to the unbelievers; He says أَمْ حَسِبَ الَّذِينَ اجْتَرَحُوا السَّيِّئَاتِ أَنْ نَجْعَلَهُمْ كَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ("Or do those who commit evil deeds suppose that We make them like those who believe and perform righteous works"), and then says: equal is the life of the unbelievers and their death — that is to say: their life is an equal life, and their death is an equal death. Thus they put sawāʾ in the nominative as the commencement of a sentence (ibtidāʾ). He said: Whoever interprets life and death as applying to the unbelievers and the believers, for him in this meaning both the accusative and the nominative of sawāʾ are permissible, for whoever construes sawāʾ as "made equal" (mustawin) ought to make it follow by analogy upon what precedes it, because it is an adjectival qualifier (ṣifa); and whoever construes it as "the being-equal" (al-istiwāʾ) ought to put it in the nominative because it is a noun — unless one puts life and death in the accusative as a substitution (badal), and puts sawāʾ in the accusative in the meaning of al-istiwāʾ. And if one wishes, one may put sawāʾ in the nominative when it has the meaning of "equal," as one says: "I passed by a man whose father is better than you," because it is an indeclinable adjectival qualifier, and the nominative is the better choice.
And some grammarians of Kufa said concerning His word سَوَاءً مَحْيَاهُمْ that sawāʾ may be read both in the accusative and in the nominative, and that life and death stand in the position of the nominative, comparable to the utterance: "I saw the people equal, its small ones and its great ones," with sawāʾ in the accusative, because he makes it into a verbal predication with respect to the referring-back to the people who have been mentioned. He said: Sometimes the Arabs made sawāʾ into the category of the noun, comparable to ḥasbuka, and said: "I saw your people equal, its small ones and its great ones," whereby it is like your utterance: "I passed by a man whose father suffices you" (ḥasbuka abūhu). He said: And if you were to put "mustawin" (made equal) in place of sawāʾ, it would not stand in the nominative, but we would make it follow upon what precedes it, unlike sawāʾ, because mustawin is an adjectival qualifier of the people, and because sawāʾ is like a verbal noun (maṣdar), and the maṣdar is a noun. He said: And if you were to put life and death in the accusative, that would be a valid manner, with the meaning: that We make them equal in their life and their death.
And others among them said: The meaning is that he who committed the wicked deeds is not equal to the believer, neither in life nor in death — whereby sawāʾ takes the place of the predicate and is thus the predicate of "We made." He said: The accusative is for the conveying, as you say: "I made your brothers equal, their small ones and their great ones." And the nominative is permissible, because sawāʾ is indeclinable. And he said: Whoever recites أَمْ حَسِبَ الَّذِينَ اجْتَرَحُوا السَّيِّئَاتِ أَنْ نَجْعَلَهُمْ كَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ and makes "like those who believe" the predicate, he begins anew with sawāʾ and puts what follows it in the nominative; and whoever puts life and death in the accusative puts sawāʾ solely in the accusative. We have already expounded earlier what the correct judgment concerning this is.
And His word: سَاءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ ("Evil is what they judge"). The Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed, says: Evil is the judgment that they imagined, namely that We would make those who committed the wicked deeds and those who believed and performed righteous works equal, equal in their life and their death.
