(17–19) “But the one who says to his parents, ‘Ugh to you both! Do you promise me that I will be raised, when generations have already passed away before me?’ while they implore Allah for help, saying, ‘Woe to you! Believe! Surely Allah’s promise is true.’ But he says, ‘This is nothing but legends of the ancients.’ * Those are the ones against whom the decree has come due, among nations of jinn and humans who passed away before them. They were indeed losers. * For all there are degrees according to what they did, so that He may repay them in full for their deeds, and they will not be wronged.”
After mentioning the righteous person who dutifully treats his parents, Allah Most High mentions the condition of the undutiful child—and it is the worst of conditions—saying: “But the one who says to his parents,” when they called him (1) to believe in Allah and the Last Day and warned him of the recompense.
The greatest kindness parents can show their child is to call him to that which will bring him everlasting happiness and eternal success. Yet he responds to them in the ugliest manner, saying, “Ugh to you both!” That is: May you both perish, along with what you have brought!
He then states why he considers this far-fetched and rejects it: “Do you promise me that I will be raised”—from my grave on the Day of Resurrection—“when generations have already passed away before me,” persisting in denial and preceding me in disbelief, although they are the leaders emulated by every obstinate, ignorant disbeliever?
“While they”—that is, his parents—“implore Allah for help” concerning him and say, “Woe to you! Believe!” In other words, they exert their utmost effort and strive as earnestly as possible to guide him. Out of their deep concern for him, they implore Allah on his behalf with the desperation of a drowning person and beseech Him with the desperation of one choking. They reproach their son, grieve for him, and explain the truth to him, saying, “Surely Allah’s promise is true.” They then present him with every proof they can, but their son only grows more insolent, averse, and disdainful toward the truth, while seeking to discredit it. “But he says, ‘This is nothing but legends of the ancients.’” That is, it is merely transmitted from the books of earlier peoples; it is not from Allah, nor did Allah reveal it to His Messenger.
Yet everyone knows that Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was unlettered: he neither wrote nor read, nor did he learn from anyone. From where, then, could he have learned it? And how could created beings produce the like of this Quran, even if they joined forces to help one another?
“Those are the ones” in this reprehensible condition “against whom the decree has come due”; that is, the sentence of punishment has become binding upon them, “among nations of jinn and humans who passed away before them” in disbelief and denial. These people will therefore enter their throngs and be swept away in their current.
“They were indeed losers.” Loss means forfeiting one’s capital. Once the capital is lost, the profits are even more certainly lost. They forfeited faith, attained none of the blessings, and did not escape the punishment of Hellfire.
“For all”—both the people of good and the people of evil—“there are degrees according to what they did.” Each will occupy a rank corresponding to the good or evil they committed, and their stations in the Hereafter will accord with their deeds. Thus He says, “So that He may repay them in full for their deeds, and they will not be wronged”: nothing will be added to their evil deeds, nor will anything be deducted from their good deeds.