Mujahid and Qatadah said: “Molten copper” is melted brass, poured over their heads. This is also al-‘Awfi’s narration from Ibn ‘Abbas. ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas‘ud said: It is boiling tar.

“You will not be able to defend yourselves,” meaning, you will be unable to protect yourselves from Allah, and you will have no helper against Him.

“So which of your Lord’s favors will you two deny? When the sky is split open and becomes rose-colored like oil, then which of your Lord’s favors will you two deny? On that Day, no human or jinn will be questioned about his sin.” (36–39)

“So which of your Lord’s favors will you two deny? When the sky is split open”—that is, opened up (1)—and becomes gateways for the descent of the angels, “and becomes rose-colored like oil,” meaning, like the color of a rose-colored horse: white tinged with red and yellow. Qatadah said: It is green today, but on that Day it will have another color tending toward red.

It was also said: On that Day it will take on various colors, like a rose-colored horse, which is yellow in spring, red at the beginning of winter, and dusty gray when winter becomes severe. Thus, the sky is likened, in the changes of its colors when it is split open, to this horse in the changes of its color.

“Like oil”: this is the plural of oil. The changing colors of the sky are likened to those of the rose-colored horse, and the rose color, in its varying shades, is likened to oil in its varying colors. This was the view of al-Dahhak, Mujahid, Qatadah, and al-Rabi‘.

‘Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah said: “Like oil” means like pressed olive oil, which takes on different colors within a single moment.

Muqatil said: Like pure rose oil. Ibn Jurayj said: The sky will become like melted oil, when it is struck by the heat of Hell.

Al-Kalbi said: “Like oil” means like red leather; its plural forms are adhinah and duhun. “So which of your Lord’s favors will you two deny?”

“On that Day, no human or jinn will be questioned about his sin.” Al-Hasan and Qatadah said: They will not be questioned about their sins in order for those sins to become known through their own statements, for Allah—exalted is He—already knows them, and the angels have recorded them against them. This is also al-‘Awfi’s narration from Ibn ‘Abbas (2).