(44, 45) “The inhabitants of Paradise will call out to the inhabitants of the Fire, ‘We have indeed found our Lord’s promise to us to be true. Have you also found your Lord’s promise to be true?’ They will reply, ‘Yes.’ Then an announcer among them will proclaim, ‘Allah’s curse is upon the wrongdoers—* those who turn others away from Allah’s way, seek to make it crooked, and disbelieve in the Hereafter.’”
After mentioning that each of the two groups had settled in its respective abode and found the reward and punishment proclaimed by the messengers and declared in the scriptures, Allah Most High says that the inhabitants of Paradise will call out to the inhabitants of the Fire, saying: “We have indeed found our Lord’s promise to us to be true.” He promised us Paradise for faith and righteous deeds, then admitted us into it and showed us what He had described to us. “Have you also found your Lord’s promise”—of punishment for disbelief and sin—“to be true?” They will reply, “Yes, we have found it to be true.”
Thus, the truth of Allah’s promise will become manifest to all creation with a clarity admitting no doubt—and who is more truthful in speech than Allah? All doubts and misconceptions will vanish from them, and the matter will become absolute certainty. The believers will rejoice in Allah’s promise and exult in it, while the disbelievers will despair of all good and admit against ⦗290⦘ themselves that they deserve the punishment.
“Then an announcer among them will proclaim”—that is, among the inhabitants of the Fire and the inhabitants of Paradise—“Allah’s curse,” meaning exclusion and banishment from every good, “is upon the wrongdoers.” For Allah opened the doors of His mercy to them, but they unjustly turned themselves away from it. They themselves turned away from Allah’s way and turned others away from it, thereby going astray and leading others astray.
Allah Most High wills that His way be straight and that those journeying toward Him proceed aright, whereas these people seek to make it “crooked”—deviant and diverting people from the straight path. “And they disbelieve in the Hereafter.” Their disbelief in the resurrection, their failure to fear punishment, and their lack of hope for reward are what caused them to deviate from the path and indulge the forbidden desires of their souls. The implication of this proclamation is that Allah’s mercy rests upon the believers, His graciousness encompasses them, and His kindness is bestowed upon them continually.