وَأَمّا مَن أوتِيَ كِتابَهُ بِشِمالِهِ فَيَقولُ يا لَيتَني لَم أوتَ كِتابِيَه
وَلَم أَدرِ ما حِسابِيَه
يا لَيتَها كانَتِ القاضِيَةَ
But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say: ‘I wish I had not been given my book,
nor had I ever known what my account is!
I wish it had been the end of it all!
EXEGESIS
Here onwards the surah contrasts the one who was given his book in his right hand (verse 19) to him who is given his book in his left hand. The words of such a person are naturally the opposite, and instead of conveying incredible joy, he expresses intense remorse. His saying, ‘I wish I had not been given my book nor had I ever known what my account is!’ in verses 25-26 results from witnessing his misdeeds in his book of deeds and the shame of being exposed before God and the rest of creation. He realises he cannot deny any of what is in his record nor escape from the painful consequences awaiting him.
Other verses describe the shock of the wrongdoers when they see the detail to which every word and action was recorded: The book will be set up. Then you will see the guilty apprehensive of what is in it. They will say: ‘Woe to us! What a book is this! It omits nothing, big or small, without enumerating it.’ They will find present whatever they had done, and your Lord does not wrong anyone (18:49).
In verse 26, the word adri in the words nor had I ever known (wa lam adri) is the imperfect tense of darā and implies to know and to be aware of something. It is, however, almost always used in the Quran with a negation particle prefixed to it, to denote the lack of knowledge of something significant or to imply ‘you can never know’ and ‘what will ever make you know?’ (see the explanation for mā adrāka and mā yudrīka under verse 3 of this surah).
So often is this verb used with negation, that a sceptic or agnostic is called a lā adrī, literally, ‘an I-don’t-know’ and likewise, scepticism or agnosticism is called lā adriyyah.
By this token, whenever the Quran uses the verb darā in all its forms, it always refers to extraordinary knowledge that would require its acquisition via uncommon means, as opposed to the normal process of study and acquisition of knowledge that is gained from a building up of premises. And this is easy to see with a closer look at the subjects that are referred to and described in the Quran by this verb, always with negation (‘I/we/you do not know’) or with a rhetorical question (‘what will make you know?’). These matters include God’s decree concerning the unknown future and the destiny of people (4:11, 21:111, 46:9, 65:1, 72:10, 80:3); the concealed hour or doom (21:109, 33:63, 42:17, 45:32, 72:25); the hidden knowledge of what one will earn tomorrow (31:34) and the time of one’s death (31:34); divine revelation and foreknowledge of it (10:16, 42:52); the Day of Judgement (69:3, 77:14, 82:17-18, 101:3); hellfire and its torment (74:27, 101:10, 104:5); the repository and record of deeds for the righteous (83:19) and the wretched (83:8); celestial matters (86:2); the uphill task (ʿaqabah) (90:12); and the Night of Ordainment (97:2).
And because God holds the knowledge of all things seen and unseen, this verb is never used for Him.
It is also noteworthy that whereas the expressions of what will make you know? (mā adrāka) and what do you know maybe? (mā yudrīka) are used for stern matters such as the hour of doom, the Day of Judgement, and hellfire, they are not used for paradise and its rewards. The rewards and pleasures of paradise are also beyond man’s imagination but humans will nonetheless attempt to envision and imagine what is desirable to them and shun and turn away from imagining the torment of what they fear. So the use of the verb darā for matters of caution may be intentional. It forces the listener to pay attention to the matters the mind seeks to flee from and to amplify the importance of preparation against what is inevitable and, in the case of hellfire, unfortunate for the one who ignores them.
In verse 27, qāḍiyah (end of it all) is from qaḍā, which is to terminate or conclude a matter. Accidents, occurrences, and vicissitudes of life are called aqḍiyat al-ḥayāt. Hence, qaḍāʾ is also used as a metonymy (kināyah) for death, as in this verse and several others, such as 6:2, 33:23, and 43:77. The expression quḍiya al-qaḍāʾ, for example, literally means ‘the divine decree was fulfilled’, but implies ‘death came with God’s will’.
Qaḍā is also to judge or execute something. A judge is called a qāḍī in Arabic and fate and divine decree are very commonly referred to as al-qāḍāʾ wa al-qadar. For more on this, see the Exposition of 19:21.
The phrase ‘I wish it had been the end of it all!’ means: ‘I wish my death in the world had been the end of it all’. It is similar to the verse, the day when a person will observe what his hands have sent ahead and the faithless one will say: ‘I wish I were dust!’ (78:40). The Arabic term qāḍiyah is also used to refer to the onset of death in 35:36: they will neither be done away with (lā yuqḍā ʿalayhim) so that they may die.
EXPOSITION
There was nothing the wretched despised in this world more than death (see 2:94 and 62:6) even as they mocked the idea of a resurrection and an afterlife (27:67, 36:78, 37:16, 56:47, 75:3). This was unlike the faithful who were convinced: ‘Indeed, I knew that I shall encounter my account’ (verse 20). Yet now, the guilty will be shocked to find out how wrong they were. Not only will they wish they had never been brought back to life, they will also long for death again, as an escape from the terror awaiting them: But as for him who is given his record from behind his back, he will pray for annihilation (84:10-11).
But they will neither be allowed to die nor escape the punishment (4:56, 14:17, 22:22, 25:14, 35:36, 87:13), and even when they enter hellfire they will pray for death (25:13, 43:77).
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Rāzī has said the wretched will say: ‘I wish I had not been given my book’ (verse 25) not so much because of the desire to escape the impending chastisement, but out of the shame and embarrassment they will feel when they see their misdeeds. They will wish they had been put in the fire without being shown their book because the emotional and spiritual torment will be far greater than the physical. He continues to argue this, two verses down as well, saying the pronoun it in I wish it had been the end of it all (verse 27) could represent death, but given their shame when they sight their book, it could mean: I wish the state of shame that I am witnessing would be the end of it all.
Whilst it may be true that the humiliation felt by the wretched will be as great as, if not greater than, their physical torment (and certainly their words ‘I wish I had not been given my book’ includes this sense of disgrace), Rāzī’s argument is exclusive. Most exegetes agree that the pronoun it in ‘I wish it’ refers to death and, the desire of the faithless to be non-existent is out of a desire to escape hellfire. There is nothing in it to suggest the faithless are saying: ‘I wish I had been put in the fire before being shown my book.’ The numerous verses quoted under the Exposition also reveal that their desire for death will stem from wanting to escape their retribution. Several verses also confirm that, after having entered the fire, they will pray for annihilation and extinction (25:13, 43:77).
Separately, numerous exegetes have also commented that as for him who is given his book in his left hand, this will be done with his left hand first twisted and tied behind his back, before he is forced to receive his record of deeds. This is quite likely to reconcile the verses that speak of the wretched receiving their book in their left hand with the verse, But as for him who is given his record from behind his back (84:10). Al-Thaʿlabī adds, quoting from Ibn al-Thābit: ‘And it is has been said, it [his left hand] will be pulled from his chest to behind his back.’
But neither ‘left hand’ nor ‘behind his back’ are necessarily literal. It could simply mean they are given their record in a humiliating manner or from the source where all the records of the vicious are kept, meaning the sijjīn (83:7-9), as explained under verse 19.
[1] Hans Wehr, d-r-y.
[2] Hans Wehr, d-r-y.
[3] Raghib, d-r-y.
[4] Hans Wehr, q-ḍ-y.
[5] See also Raghib, q-ḍ-y.
[6] Razi, 30/630.
[7] Nasr, 69:25, from Ibn Kathir, Qurtubi, Tabrisi, and Zamakhshari.
[8] Thalabi, 10/31.