Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 56 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:56

فَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ فَأُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن نَّـٰصِرِينَ

“And as for those who disbelieved, I will punish them with a severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter, and they will have no helpers."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah's judgement on those who rejected the truth about ʿĪsā: a severe punishment in this world and the next, with no one to help them.

A reflection

Whose judgement do you fear?

A junior accountant spends a week rehearsing for her annual appraisal. She lies awake imagining her manager's frown, practising answers to questions he may never ask. It has not once occurred to her to rehearse what she will say to Allah.

'As for those who disbelieved, I will punish them with a severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter'. A classical commentator notes that this ayah sets out in detail the judgement just promised. 'I will judge between you' (3:55) is now spelled out.

The lexicons picture shadīd, severe, as a knot pulled tight: strength and firmness. And they give ʿadhāb, punishment, a strange and haunting picture. A horse that is ʿādhib stands with its head raised, refusing fodder and water. It is a life held back from everything that gives it ease.

This is where the ego's sense of what matters is reordered. Much of our anxiety is spent on human judgement: the appraisal, the review, the comments, the family's opinion. These are real, and they pass. The ayah names a judgement that does not pass, held by One whom no lawyer can appeal and no friend can lobby.

Does Allah need to warn us? He needs nothing (35:15). The warning is mercy, given while there is still time. Its purpose is not to make us afraid of everything. It is to make us afraid of the right thing, and so free of the rest.

The accountant's appraisal went well, as it happened. But that night she sat on her prayer mat for a long time, thinking about the other appraisal, and the questions she had never rehearsed.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.