إِنَّهُ كانَ لا يُؤمِنُ بِاللَّهِ العَظيمِ
Indeed he had no faith in Allah, the all-supreme.
EXEGESIS
The addition of the past tense kāna (lit. he was) before the present tense verb lā yuʾminu (he does not have faith) puts the sentence in the past continuous tense to read ‘he used to not have faith’ (given here as he had no faith).
The use of kāna here will play the same role in the next verse, as a continuation to this one. In Arabic grammar, the past tense is also the perfect tense, denoting the completion and perfection of an event, and conversely, the present tense is used to denote the imperfect tense. The Quran also uses kāna for future events to emphasise their inevitability and the truth of their occurrence (see the Exegesis of 78:17 for examples of kāna for the future tense).
EXPOSITION
The surah’s opening identified for us one major cause for earning God’s wrath, which is the denial of Judgement Day (verse 4). But that denial is the result of a deeper problem, revealed in this and the next verse – the denial of one’s Creator and refusal to serve His creation, thus severing ties with both. In other words, this verse and the next will tell us why some will be given their book in their left hand and subjected to the chastisements described earlier.
These two verses also reveal how faith and action, or the rights of the Creator and His creation, go hand in hand, as was explained in the Exposition of 2:83 concerning the words worship no one but Allah and do good.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From Imam al-Bāqir (a) concerning the verses, But as for him who is given his book in his left hand … until Indeed he had no faith in Allah, the all-supreme (verses 25-33), he said: ‘So this [then proves he] is a polytheist (mushrik).’
[1] Kafi, 2/30, h. 1.