(7–17) “No indeed! The record of the wicked is in Sijjīn. * And what will make you know what Sijjīn is? * A written record. * Woe on that Day to the deniers, * those who deny the Day of Recompense. * None denies it except every transgressing sinner. * When Our verses are recited to him, he says, ‘Legends of the ancients!’ * No indeed! Rather, what they used to earn has covered their hearts with rust. * No indeed! On that Day they will surely be veiled from their Lord. * Then they will surely burn in Hellfire. * Then it will be said, ‘This is what you used to deny.’”
Allah Most High says: “No indeed! The record of the wicked”—[this includes every wicked person] among the various kinds of disbelievers, hypocrites, and defiantly disobedient people—“is in Sijjīn.”
He then explained this by saying: “And what will make you know what Sijjīn is? A written record”; that is, a record in which their vile deeds are inscribed. Sijjīn is a narrow, constricted place. Sijjīn is the opposite of Illiyyīn, where the record of the righteous is kept, as will be discussed.
It has also been said that Sijjīn lies at the lowest part of the seventh earth and is the abode and final dwelling of the wicked upon their resurrection.
“Woe on that Day to the deniers.” He then identified the deniers as (1) “those who deny the Day of Recompense”; that is, the Day of Retribution, when Allah will recompense people according to their deeds.
“None denies it except every transgressor” who violates what Allah has made inviolable, crossing from the lawful into the forbidden.
“Sinner” means one who commits many sins. His transgression is what drives such a person to denial, and what drives him—[his transgression drives him to denial and causes] his arrogance—to reject the truth. Thus, “when Our verses are recited to him,” which point to the truth and [to] the truthfulness of what His messengers brought, he rejects and stubbornly opposes them, and “says” that these are “legends of the ancients”; that is, absurd tales of earlier peoples and accounts of bygone nations, not something from Allah. He says this out of arrogance and stubbornness.
As for one who is fair and whose aim is to discover the manifest truth, he does not deny the Day of Recompense, for Allah has presented him with decisive proofs and radiant demonstrations that render it an unquestionable certainty. It becomes as clear to their hearts as the sun is to the eyes (2). This is unlike one whose earnings have covered his heart with rust and whose sins have enveloped it. Such a person is veiled from the truth. He is therefore requited by being veiled from Allah, just as his heart was veiled from Allah’s signs in this world. “Then indeed they,” in addition to this grievous punishment, “will surely burn in Hellfire.” Then it will be said to them as a rebuke ⦗916⦘ and reprimand: “This is what you used to deny.” Thus, He mentioned three kinds of punishment for them: the punishment of Hellfire and the punishment of rebuke and blame;
and the punishment of being veiled from the Lord of the worlds, which entails His wrath and anger against them. This is more grievous to them than the punishment of the Fire. The implication of the verse indicates that the believers will behold their Lord on the Day of Resurrection and in Paradise. They will take greater delight in beholding Him than in every other pleasure, rejoice when He addresses them, and rejoice at being near Him. Allah has mentioned this in several verses of the Quran, and reports concerning it have been transmitted recurrently from the Messenger of Allah.
These verses also contain a warning against sins, for they cast rust upon the heart and cover it little by little until its light is extinguished and its insight dies. Realities are then inverted for the sinner, so that he sees falsehood as truth and truth as falsehood. This is among some (3) of the punishments for sins.