Tafseer of The Sun · Ash-Shams · 91:15
And He does not fear the consequence thereof.
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 statement: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا ("And He does not fear its consequences"). The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of this. Some said: the meaning is that He does not fear any retribution for the destruction that He brought upon them.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: Allah does not fear any retribution from anyone.
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mustamir related to me, saying: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: ʿUmar ibn Marthad related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His statement: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: That is our Lord, blessed and exalted is He; He does not fear retribution for what He has done to them.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Munabbih — thus it stands in my book — I heard al-Ḥasan recite: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: That is the Lord; He did that to them, and feared no retribution.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His statement: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: He does not fear their retribution.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he says: He does not fear that He will be called to account for anything of what He has done to them.
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 statement: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا . Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr said in his narration: Allah said: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا . And al-Ḥārith said in his narration: Allah does not fear its consequences.
Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, saying: Razīn ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, on the authority of Abū Sulaymān, he said: I heard Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī say concerning His statement: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: Allah does not fear the retribution.
And others said: rather, the meaning of it is: and the one who hamstrung her did not fear its consequences, that is: the outcome of his deed that he committed.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Jābir ibn Nūḥ related to us, saying: Abū Rawq related to us, saying: al-Ḍaḥḥāk related to us: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: The one who hamstrung her did not fear its consequences.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: The one who hamstrung her did not fear its consequences.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , he said: The one who did not fear — what he did — the outcome of what he did.
The reciters (qurrāʾ) differed in the recitation of this. Most of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Syria recited it فَلا يَخافُ عُقْبَاهَا with a fāʾ, and thus it stands likewise in their maṣāḥif (codices). And most of the reciters of Iraq in the two garrison towns recited it with a wāw وَلا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا , and thus it stands likewise in their maṣāḥif.
The correct judgment concerning this is: that they are two well-known recitations that do not differ from one another in meaning; with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct.
The reciters also differed concerning the imāla (the inclining of the a-sound toward the i-sound) of what belongs, in this surah and elsewhere, to the words with a wāw, such as His statement: وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلاهَا and وَمَا طَحَاهَا and the like. Most of the reciters of Kūfa pronounced all of that with fatḥa (the open a-sound), and inclined what belongs to the words with a yāʾ, except ʿĀṣim and al-Kisāʾī; for ʿĀṣim pronounced all of that with fatḥa, both what belonged to the words with a wāw and what belonged to the words with a yāʾ, without inclining anything of it.
And al-Kisāʾī inclined all of that toward the i-sound. And Abū ʿAmr looked at the consistency of the verse-endings: if they went out upon one and the same thing, he inclined all of them. As for most of the reciters of Medina, they do not incline anything of it strongly, nor do they pronounce it with strong fatḥa, but keep it in between. The most eloquent and best of that is that one looks at the beginning of the surah: if the verse-endings go out upon a yāʾ, one renders all of them with a non-exaggerated imāla; and if the verse-endings go out upon a wāw, one pronounces them with fatḥa and renders all of them with a non-exaggerated fatḥa. And when one kind of that occurs alone in a particular place, one inclines the words with a yāʾ with a moderate imāla, and pronounces the words with a wāw with a middling fatḥa. And when these are inclined and those are pronounced with fatḥa, that is no linguistic error; only, the eloquent form of the language is that whose nature we have described.
End of the interpretation of Surah Wa-l-Shams wa-Ḍuḥāhā.