Tafseer of The Dawn · Al-Fajr · 89:24
He will say, "Oh, I wish I had sent ahead [some good] for my life."
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 statement concerning the interpretation of His word, the Exalted: yaqūlu yā laytanī qaddamtu li-ḥayātī (He says: O woe to me, would that I had sent something forward for my life) (24).
His word: yā laytanī qaddamtu li-ḥayātī (O woe to me, would that I had sent something forward for my life). He, exalted is His remembrance, says, reporting about the grief of the son of Adam on the Day of Resurrection and his regret over his negligence in good works in the worldly life — works that would have bequeathed to him eternal perpetuity in a bliss that knows no end —: O woe to me, would that I had, for this life of mine that has no death after it, sent forward something of the good works in the worldly life, something that would save me from the wrath of Allah and that would gain me His good pleasure.
And in the manner of what we have said about this, the scholars of interpretation have spoken.
Mention of who said this:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Hawdha related to us, saying: ʿAwf related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: yawmaʾidhin yatadhakkaru l-insānu wa-annā lahu l-dhikrā * yaqūlu yā laytanī qaddamtu li-ḥayātī (on that day man will remember, but how will the remembrance avail him? He says: O woe to me, would that I had sent something forward for my life), he said: Allah knew that he is truthful; over there is a long life in which there is no death — the last thing that remains for him.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, his word: yā laytanī qaddamtu li-ḥayātī (O woe to me, would that I had sent something forward for my life) — over there, by Allah, is the long life.
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, his word: yā laytanī qaddamtu li-ḥayātī (O woe to me, would that I had sent something forward for my life), he said: the Hereafter.
