(59–67) “Set yourselves apart today, O evildoers! * Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan? Indeed, he is a manifest enemy to you. * And that you should worship Me? This is a straight path. * He has already led great multitudes of you astray. Did you not then understand? * This is Hell, which you were promised. * Enter it and burn therein today because you used to disbelieve. * Today We shall seal their mouths, while their hands speak to Us and their feet bear witness to what they used to earn. * Had We willed, We could have obliterated their eyes; then they would have raced toward the Bridge—but how could they see? * And had We willed, We could have paralyzed them in their places, so they could neither advance nor turn back.”
After mentioning the reward of the God-fearing, Allah Most High mentions the recompense of the evildoers and that on the Day of Resurrection they will be told, “Set yourselves apart today, O evildoers!” That is, separate yourselves from the believers and stand apart, so that He may rebuke and reprimand them publicly before all witnesses prior to admitting them into the Fire. He will say to them, “Did I not enjoin upon you?”—that is, command and instruct you through My messengers—and [say to you:] “O children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan?” In other words: Did I not tell you not to obey him? This rebuke encompasses every kind of disbelief and sin, for all of them constitute obedience to and worship of Satan. “Indeed, he is a manifest enemy to you.” I therefore warned you against him in the strongest terms, cautioned you against obeying him, and informed you of what he calls you toward. “And” I commanded you “to worship Me” by carrying out My commands and avoiding My prohibitions. “This”—namely, worshipping and obeying Me while disobeying Satan—“is a straight path.” All the knowledge and deeds of the straight path come back to these two matters. Yet you neither kept My covenant nor followed My instruction. Instead, you allied yourselves with your enemy, and so “he has already led great multitudes of you astray”—that is, a vast number of people.
“Did you not then understand?” That is, had you no reason to command you to ally yourselves with your Lord and true Protector and to restrain you from taking your bitterest enemy as an ally? Had you possessed sound reason, you would not have done so. Thus, when you obeyed Satan, defied the Most Merciful, denied that you would meet Him, and arrived at the Resurrection—the abode of recompense—so that the sentence of punishment became binding upon you, it will be said: “This is Hell, which you were promised” but used to deny. Now behold it with your own eyes. At that moment, their hearts will be thrown into turmoil, their eyes will stare wildly, and the supreme terror will seize them.
This will then be completed when they are ordered into the Fire and told, “Enter it and burn therein today because you used to disbelieve.” That is, enter it to be burned by it; its heat will surround you and afflict you to the utmost because you disbelieved in Allah’s signs and rejected Allah’s messengers.
Allah Most High says, describing their appalling state in the abode of misery: “Today We shall seal their mouths” by rendering them mute and unable to speak, so that they cannot deny the disbelief and rejection they committed. “While their hands speak to Us and their feet bear witness to what they used to earn.” That is, their limbs will testify against them concerning what they did, and He who causes all things to speak will cause them to speak.
“Had We willed, We could have obliterated their eyes”—that is, taken away their sight just as We took away their speech. “Then they would have raced toward the Bridge,” hastening toward it because it is the way to reach Paradise; “but how could they see” when their sight had been obliterated?
“And had We willed, We could have paralyzed them in their places”—that is, taken away their ability to move—“so they could neither advance” forward “nor turn back” behind them to distance themselves from the Fire. The meaning is that the sentence of punishment has become binding upon these disbelievers, and there is no way for them to escape their punishment.
At that place, there will be nothing but the Fire, brought into full view, and no one will be saved except by crossing the Bridge. Only the people of faith, who will walk by their light, can do so. As for these people, they have no covenant from Allah guaranteeing deliverance from the Fire. If He wills, He may obliterate their sight while leaving them able to move, in which case they would not find their way to the Bridge even if they raced and hastened toward it. And if He wills, He may take away their ability to move, so that they can neither advance nor retreat. The point is that they will not cross it and therefore will not attain salvation.