كَلّا بَل تُكَذِّبونَ بِالدّينِ

No indeed! Rather you deny the retribution.

EXEGESIS

The word dīn comes from the root verb dāna that has two meanings. One is to borrow, to be indebted or under obligation to someone, and the other is to profess or to adhere to a religion, creed, or custom.^{‎[1]Hans Wehr, d-y-n.} Dīn can therefore mean retribution or recompense, or religion; and in this verse, dīn is understood to mean the Day of Retribution, which is one of the many names for the final Day of Judgement. Interpreting dīn as the religion of Islam in this verse is not favoured by exegetes as it does not agree with the context and the usage of the word, even as it is repeated in verse 15 and again in the last verses of this surah.

EXPOSITION

The retribution is the Day of Retribution, which is the Day of Resurrection and final judgement, as mentioned under the Exegesis of this verse, and as will be explained further under verse 15. The exclamation No indeed! Rather … (kallā bal) explains why man is being reprimanded for turning away from his Lord. When one is heedless of his Lord, he stops believing he will be held accountable for his actions, and hence he does as he pleases and thereby goes astray; all this because you deny the retribution. Retribution in this context means just recompense and what is deserved, and not mere revenge.

The Quran’s frequent mention of belief in the Day of Judgement alongside the belief in God^{‎[2]For example, 2:8, 2:62, 2:126, 2:177, 2:228, 2:232, 2:264, 3:114, 4:38, 4:39, 4:59, 4:136, 4:162, 5:69, 9:18, 9:19, 9:29, 9:44, 9:45, 9:99, 24:2, 33:21, 58:22, 60:6, and 65:2.} shows the two are synonymous, and that it is unlikely a human being will surrender to his Lord or strive to please Him unless his life’s goals and ambitions – and therefore his actions and thoughts – are driven with a focus on the Day of Retribution.

Based on archaeological evidence and poetry from the pre-Islamic era, it appears the Arabs before Islam did not have much concern about life beyond death or were ill-informed about it. At best, God was thought to create and then not interfere. Man was then seen to be at the mercy of destiny, which was understood to be abstract time itself (dahr, zamān), hence the verse where the pagan Arabs assert, there is nothing but the life of this world: we live and we die, and nothing but time (dahr) destroys us (45:24); furthermore, it is from this very verse that the term dahrī (atheist) is derived. Even when the term khulūd was used in pre-Islamic poetry, it was understood to mean long life rather than eternity.^{‎[3]Smith & Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death & Resurrection, pp. 2-3.}

This would explain why there was so much scepticism and ridicule from the Meccans when the Prophet preached that all humankind will be resurrected and will have to account for their actions. The Quran is replete with examples of the ridicule and rejection of the Meccan community concerning the Day of Resurrection.^{‎[4]See, for example, verses such as 16:38, 17:49, 17:98, 19:66, 36:78, 37:16-17, 50:3, 75:3, and 79:10-12, all of which convey the Meccan disbelief in the idea of a bodily resurrection.} For every mention of this scorn, however, the Quran offers a multitude of assurances that God can and will raise the dead, and that resurrection is an indispensable part of His plan for each individual and indeed for all creation.

Islam offers humans a purposeful direction in the hands of a just and merciful God, but this of course necessitates a belief in an afterlife where this purpose is revealed, and the justice and mercy of God is seen to repatriate in favour of the faithful and the oppressed.

In 22:5-7, for example, the Quran argues that if you doubt the resurrection then consider how you are created into this world. The resurrection is even more plausible than birth into this world. Fayḍ Kāshānī explains this with an argument given by ‘some of the gnostics’:^{‎[5]By ‘some of the gnostics’ (baʿḍ al-ʿurafāʾ), Kāshānī is referring to Ghazālī, whom he often refers to as ‘some of the scholars’ (baʿḍ al-ʿulamāʾ) and on whose magnum opus, the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, Kāshānī wrote a recension, al-Maḥajjat al-Bayḍāʾ. This example is given by Ghazālī in his Majmūʿah Rasāʾil, 4/154-155.} supposing an intelligent being with no human experience was told that a man vibrates himself vigorously and repeatedly over a woman and from one of his organs a frothy substance flows out and into the woman’s body and it hides itself in one of her organs; and after remaining there for a while, the liquid changes to a clot, then to an embryo, then to bones that are clothed with flesh, then it stirs and moves, and then it comes forth from the woman from a narrow passage that you would never expect it to be able to pass through, and neither the mother dies nor is this creature broken apart. Then this new being opens its eyes and from the breast of this woman flows a drink, which was never present in her before, and it sustains this little creature until it grows bigger and in due course it becomes endowed with skills and reasoning – would he believe it was the same drop of sperm that has become a fully-grown, mature, adult human being? Or would he more likely believe that a person dies, his body decays, some of it remains, and God reconstructs it again and brings it back to life? The latter seems more plausible than the former.^{‎[6]Fayḍ Kāshānī, ʿĀlam mā Baʿd al-Mawt, p. 96.} See also 56:60-62.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

We mentioned in the Exegesis and Exposition sections that the retribution (dīn) refers to the Day of Judgement, when people are resurrected and recompensed for their deeds in this life before taking up their final abodes. This is what many have said, including Ṭabarī who reports from Mujāhid that dīn means the accounting (ḥisāb) or the Day of Accounting (yawm al-ḥisāb), and from Qatādah that dīn is: ‘The Day of Hardship (yawm al-shiddah), the day when God requites (yadīnu) people for their actions.’^{‎[7]Tabari, 30/56.} But some exegetes such as Rāzī have suggested al-dīn could also mean the religion, in which case the verse would mean: No indeed! Rather you deny the religion of Islam.^{‎[8]Razi, 31/77.} And according to Qummī, dīn is authority (wilāyah) and the verse is warning those who deny the Apostle of God and the wilāyah of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (a).^{‎[9]Qummi, 2/409.}

Given the context of the verse, however, Makārim Shīrāzī refutes all such interpretations as ‘remote’, except dīn meaning Judgement Day.^{‎[10]Nemuneh, 26/224.}

At best, we may regard them as interpretations based on the principle of flow of the verse (jary).^{‎[11]See Review of Tafsīr Literature for 2:3.} This verse also resonates with verse 6, in which man is said to be deceived, heedless, and proud. If the condition of a heedless and proud person is analysed, what appears to have really taken over their hearts is doubt regarding the Day of Resurrection, for if they had absolute conviction of it then their heedlessness and being deceived from their Lord would cease.

[1] Hans Wehr, d-y-n.
[2] For example, 2:8, 2:62, 2:126, 2:177, 2:228, 2:232, 2:264, 3:114, 4:38, 4:39, 4:59, 4:136, 4:162, 5:69, 9:18, 9:19, 9:29, 9:44, 9:45, 9:99, 24:2, 33:21, 58:22, 60:6, and 65:2.
[3] Smith & Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death & Resurrection, pp. 2-3.
[4] See, for example, verses such as 16:38, 17:49, 17:98, 19:66, 36:78, 37:16-17, 50:3, 75:3, and 79:10-12, all of which convey the Meccan disbelief in the idea of a bodily resurrection.
[5] By ‘some of the gnostics’ (baʿḍ al-ʿurafāʾ), Kāshānī is referring to Ghazālī, whom he often refers to as ‘some of the scholars’ (baʿḍ al-ʿulamāʾ) and on whose magnum opus, the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, Kāshānī wrote a recension, al-Maḥajjat al-Bayḍāʾ. This example is given by Ghazālī in his Majmūʿah Rasāʾil, 4/154-155.
[6] Fayḍ Kāshānī, ʿĀlam mā Baʿd al-Mawt, p. 96.
[7] Tabari, 30/56.
[8] Razi, 31/77.
[9] Qummi, 2/409.
[10] Nemuneh, 26/224.
[11] See Review of Tafsīr Literature for 2:3.