Rather, what they had previously concealed became apparent to them. Even if they were sent back, they would return to what they had been forbidden; indeed, they are liars. (28) They say, “There is nothing but this worldly life of ours, and we shall not be resurrected.” (29) If only you could see when they are made to stand before their Lord. He will say, “Is this not the truth?” They will say, “Indeed, by our Lord!” He will say, “Then taste the punishment for your disbelief.” (30)

The Exalted says: “And if only you could see when they are made to stand before the Fire”—that is, in the Fire, as in His saying, “upon Solomon’s kingdom,” meaning, within Solomon’s kingdom. It was also said that they will be presented before the Fire. The response to the conditional “if” is omitted; its meaning is: if you were to see them in that state, you would see something astounding. “They will say, ‘If only we could be sent back!’”—that is, back to this world—“then we would not deny the signs of our Lord, and we would be among the believers.”

The standard reading renders both verbs in the indicative, meaning: “If only we could be sent back, while we would not deny, and would be among the believers.” Hamzah, Hafs, and Ya‘qub recited, “then we would not deny, and we would be,” with both verbs in the subjunctive, the bāʾ (b) and nūn (n) bearing the subjunctive ending, as a response to the wish. That is: if only our being sent back could come to pass, and we would not deny and would be among the believers. The Arabs place the response to a wish in the subjunctive after the conjunction “and,” just as they do after “then.” Ibn ‘Amir recited “we would not deny” in the indicative and “we would be” in the subjunctive, because they wished to be among the believers, while declaring of themselves that, if returned to this world, they would not deny the signs of their Lord.

“Rather, what they had concealed became apparent to them.” The word “rather” contains a refutation of their claim; that is, the matter is not as they said—that if they were sent back, they would believe. Rather, what they had concealed—what they had kept secret—previously in this world, namely, their disbelief