وَما أَدراكَ ما يَومُ الدّينِ
ثُمَّ ما أَدراكَ ما يَومُ الدّينِ
يَومَ لا تَملِكُ نَفسٌ لِنَفسٍ شَيئًا ۖ وَالأَمرُ يَومَئِذٍ لِلَّهِ
And what will show you what is the Day of Retribution?
Again, what will show you what is the Day of Retribution?
It is a day when no soul will be of any avail to another soul and all command that day will belong to Allah.
EXEGESIS
The word amr (command) has two common meanings both of which are applicable in verse 19. It can mean authority and sovereignty, as is the prestige of an all-powerful, uncontested king (as declared in 40:16). Or it can mean command in the sense of the right to order and prohibit. See also 17:85 for broader meanings of amr.
EXPOSITION
This form of repeating a rhetorical question is a commonly used style in the Quran to express amazement and wonder at something beyond easy human comprehension. The style, its use, and occurrence in the Quran has been explained in detail under the Exposition of 69:1-3.
No soul will be of any avail to another soul in repelling or averting any danger from another, even if they used to help each other in their rebellion in this world. And all command (amr) that day will belong to Allah means all the recompensing, rewarding, avenging, or forgiving will only be by His command. In fact, none shall speak except whom the All-Beneficent permits and who says what is right (78:38).
Qummi quotes a report from Ibn Abbas that and all command (amr) that day will belong to Allah means the kingdom, power, authority, honour, majesty, beauty, magnificence, and awe will be for Allah only. And on the Day of Resurrection all of humanity will emerge from their graves to hear a declaration: To whom does the sovereignty belong today? To Allah, the one, the all-paramount! (40:16). None shall contest this of course because the truth will be so clear, and everyone will be preoccupied with his own worries, unable and unconcerned with another (80:37).
Jābir reports that Imam al-Bāqir (a) said to him: ‘The command (amr) on that day and today, all belong to Allah, O Jābir. When the Day of Resurrection comes to pass, all judges will be dispersed and there shall remain no judge besides Allah.’
What the Imam meant to say was that the command and authority is of course only God’s even today, just as it always was and always will be. But that day is mentioned to highlight that on the Day of Resurrection, God’s authority and dominion will be undeniable and overwhelmingly apparent to all, and the illusion of power and command of anyone besides Him will simply disappear; even the most stubborn of atheists will realise what was always true – that all command belongs to God alone. It is perhaps for this reason that after stating On that day true sovereignty will belong to the All-Beneficent, the Quran immediately concludes, and it will be a hard day for the faithless (25:26).
Tabatabai calls this narration of Imam al-Bāqir (a) ‘one of the most beautiful narrations’.
Part of the reason people fail to see that the command and authority is entirely God’s even in this world is because they associate all that happens around them to secondary causes and effects, while God as the original and ultimate cause is acknowledged only by the faithful. In the next world there is a removal of the illusion of causes and effects and it becomes very apparent He is the real cause behind all matters. Hence, no soul will be of any avail to another soul without His permission. The wrongdoers will see, when they sight the punishment, that power, altogether, belongs to Allah (2:165).
This shift in consciousness and understanding will be so radical that the Quran uses it in this verse as a summary reply to the twice-repeated question, what will show you what is the Day of Retribution? (verses 17 and 18). So even though the significance and reality of the Day of Judgement and of the real and everlasting world is beyond human imagination and understanding, what can be glimpsed and perhaps appreciated by man in this world is that in the hereafter, the presence of God everywhere and in everything will be the real awakening and basis of all experience. Of course God in His perfection does not experience any change with time. The difference and change will only occur from the perspective of the viewer and not the viewed.
Those who seek enlightenment in this world and a direct experience of the divine are, in a sense, seeking this awareness of God’s omnipresence, and His being the only true independent reality. They seek a state that Imam Ali (a) described for himself as: ‘If the veils were removed, I would not increase in my conviction.’
The words, It is a day when no soul will be of any avail to another soul do not negate the concept of intercession (shafāʿah) on Judgement Day by the prophets and Imams because their intercession will also be by God’s command and permission; in fact, it is a part of His decree and plan to honour His chosen servants on that day by allowing them to intercede for others. They shall not intercede for the undeserving but rather for those whom God already plans to rescue by means of intercession. And they do not intercede except for someone He approves of (21:28). As mentioned under the Exposition for 2:48, there are numerous verses in the Quran that support intercession just as there are verses that apparently seem to reject the concept, and the difference is explained in the Topical Article: Intercession.
[1] Tabrisi, 10/683.
[2] Tabrisi, 5/450.
[3] Mizan, 20/229.
[4] Razi, 31/81.