“And say, ‘My Lord, I seek refuge in You from the incitements of the devils, (97) and I seek refuge in You, my Lord, lest they attend me.’ (98) Until, when death comes to one of them, he says, ‘My Lord, send me back, (99) so that I may do righteous deeds in what I left behind.’ No! It is only a word that he utters; and behind them is a barrier until the Day they are resurrected. (100) Then, when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no ties of kinship among them that Day, nor will they ask about one another. (101)”
“And say, ‘My Lord, I seek refuge in You’”: that is, I seek protection and refuge in You, “from the incitements of the devils.” Ibn Abbas said: their promptings. Al-Hasan said: their whisperings. Mujahid said: their blowing and spitting. The scholars of meaning said: their driving people, through temptation, toward acts of disobedience. The root meaning of incitement is a forceful push.
“And I seek refuge in You, my Lord, lest they attend me”: that is, in any of my affairs. Their attendance is mentioned because, when Satan is present with a person, he whispers to him.
He then informed that these disbelievers who deny the Resurrection will ask to return to this world when they behold death. He said: “Until, when death comes to one of them, he says, ‘My Lord, send me back.’” He did not say, “Send me back” in the singular, although he is asking Allah alone to return him. This accords with the custom of the Arabs, who addressed a single person in the plural as a form of magnification, just as Allah Most High informed us concerning Himself, saying: “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will surely preserve it” (al-Hijr 9). There are many similar instances in the Quran.
It was also said that this address is directed to the angels who take his soul, after he had first addressed Allah; for they sought Allah’s aid first, then turned to asking the angels to return them to this world.
His saying, “So that I may do righteous deeds in what I left behind”: that is, I neglected to say, “There is no deity worthy of worship but Allah.” It was also said: I may act in obedience to Allah. Qatada said: He does not wish to return to his family and clan, nor to amass worldly things and indulge his desires. Rather, he wishes to return so that he may act in obedience to Allah. May Allah have mercy on the person who does what the disbeliever will wish to do when he sees the punishment.
“No!” is a word of rebuke and restraint; that is, he will not be returned to it. “It is only a word that he utters”: that is, his request to return is merely a word that he says [but will not attain] (1). “And behind them is a barrier”: that is, ahead of them and before them is a barrier, “until the Day they are resurrected.” A barzakh is a barrier between two things. They differed concerning its meaning here. Mujahid said: It is a veil between them and returning to this world. Qatada said: It is the remainder of this world. Al-Dahhak said: The barzakh is what lies between death and the Resurrection. It was also said that it is the grave, in which they remain until the Day they are resurrected.
“Then, when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no ties of kinship among them”: They differed concerning this blast, and Sa'id ibn Jubayr narrated: