وَأَصحابُ الشِّمالِ ما أَصحابُ الشِّمالِ
And the people of the left hand – what are the people of the left hand?
EXEGESIS
See the Exegesis of verse 27 for the people of the left hand (shimāl).
EXPOSITION
This set of verses concern the third group in the hereafter, the people of the left hand, noted in verse 9 as the people of misery (mashʾamah). The description of their punishments presented in these verses is so direct and severe that it makes these verses among the toughest and most distressing verses of the entire Quran. When the Prophet named Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah as one of the chapters that ‘made me old’, he was most likely referring to these verses.
The distinguishing qualities and actions of the people of the left hand have been mentioned in the following verses, as well as elsewhere in the Quran. But those who defy Our signs, they are the people of the left hand (90:19). They are those whose books of deeds are given to them from the left side (or from behind), indicating their misery and misfortune. But as for him who is given his book in his left hand … Indeed he had no faith in Allah, the all-supreme, and he did not urge the feeding of the needy (69:25 and 69:33-34); But as for him who is given his record from behind his back … Indeed he used to be joyful among his folk, and indeed he thought he would never return (84:10-14). They are described elsewhere as those who were blind in this world – to the signs and messages of God – and thus they shall be resurrected blind in the hereafter: whoever is given his book in his right hand – they will read it, and they will not be wronged so much as a single date-thread. But whoever has been blind in this [world], will be blind in the hereafter, and [even] more astray from the [right] way (17:71-72).
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left.
[1] Ecclesiastes 10:2.