Tafsir of Surah Yunus - Verse 28

The gods of the Idolators will claim Innocence from them on the Day of Resurrection

Allah said:

وَيَوْمَ نَحْشُرُهُمْ

(And the Day whereon We shall gather them) Allah will gather together all the creatures of earth, human and Jinn, righteous and rebellious. He said in another Ayah:

وَحَشَرْنَـهُمْ فَلَمْ نُغَادِرْ مِنْهُمْ أَحَداً

(and We shall gather them all together so as to leave not one of them behind.)18:47

ثُمَّ نَقُولُ لِلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُواْ مَكَانَكُمْ أَنتُمْ وَشُرَكَآؤُكُمْ

(then We shall say to those who did associate partners: "Stop at your place! You and your partners.") He then will command the idolators to stay where they are and not to move from their destined places so they would be separated from the place of the believers. Similarly, Allah said:

وَامْتَازُواْ الْيَوْمَ أَيُّهَا الْمُجْرِمُونَ

((It will be said): "And O you the criminals! Get you apart this Day (from the believers).)(36:59) Allah also said:

وَيَوْمَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَفَرَّقُونَ

(And on the Day when the Hour will be established - that Day shall (all men) be separated (the believers will be separated from the disbelievers). )30:14 In the same Surah, Ar-Rum, Allah said:

يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصَّدَّعُونَ

(On that Day men shall be divided.) 30:43 means, they shall be divided in two. This is what will take place when Allah Almighty will come for Final Judgement. The believers intercede to Allah so the Final Judgement may come and they get rid of that state. The Prophet said,

«نَحْنُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عَلَى كُومٍ فَوْقَ النَّاس»

(On the Day of Resurrection, we will be in a visible place above the other people.) Allah tells us here what He is going to command the idolators and their idols to do on the Day of Resurrection

مَكَانَكُمْ أَنتُمْ وَشُرَكَآؤُكُمْ فَزَيَّلْنَا بَيْنَهُمْ

("Stop at your place! You and your partners." Then We shall separate them,) and that they would deny their worship and claim their innocence from them. Similarly, Allah said: `

كَلاَّ سَيَكْفُرُونَ بِعِبَـدَتِهِمْ

(Nay, but they will deny their worship of them.)19:82,

إِذْ تَبَرَّأَ الَّذِينَ اتُّبِعُواْ مِنَ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُواْ

(When those who were followed declare themselves innocent of those who followed (them).)2:166, and;

وَمَنْ أَضَلُّ مِمَّن يَدْعُو مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ مَن لاَّ يَسْتَجِيبُ لَهُ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَـمَةِ وَهُمْ عَن دُعَآئِهِمْ غَـفِلُونَ وَإِذَا حُشِرَ النَّاسُ كَانُواْ لَهُمْ أَعْدَآءً

(And who is more astray than one who calls on (invokes) besides Allah, such as will not answer him till the Day of Resurrection, and who are (even) unaware of their calls (invocations) to them And when mankind are gathered (on the Day of Resurrection), they (false deities) will become their enemies)46:5-6. This refers to the partners responding to those who worshipped them, Then Allah said:

فَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ

(So sufficient is Allah as a witness between us and you.) They say that we did not know or think that you were worshipping us. Allah is a Witness between us and you that we never called upon you to worship us. We never ordered you to worship us; neither did we accept your worship of us. Allah said:

هُنَالِكَ تَبْلُواْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَّآ أَسْلَفَتْ

(There! Every person will know (exactly) what he had earned before) This will be the state of accounting on the Day of Resurrection. Every soul shall know all that it had sent forth, both good and evil. Similarly, Allah said:

يَوْمَ تُبْلَى السَّرَآئِرُ

(The Day when all the secrets will be examined.)86:9,

يُنَبَّأُ الإِنسَـنُ يَوْمَئِذِ بِمَا قَدَّمَ وَأَخَّرَ

(On that Day man will be informed of what he sent forward (of deeds), and what he left behind.)75:13, and

وَكُلَّ إِنْسَـنٍ أَلْزَمْنَـهُ طَـئِرَهُ فِى عُنُقِهِ وَنُخْرِجُ لَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ كِتَابًا يَلْقَـهُ مَنْشُوراً - اقْرَأْ كَتَـبَكَ كَفَى بِنَفْسِكَ الْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكَ حَسِيبًا

(. ..and on the Day of Resurrection, We shall bring out for him a book which he will find wide open. (It will be said to him): "Read your book. You yourself are sufficient as a reckoner against you this Day.") 17:13-14 Then Allah said,

وَرُدُّواْ إِلَى اللَّهِ مَوْلَـهُمُ الْحَقِّ

(and they will be brought back to Allah, their rightful Mawla.) All affairs and matters will be brought back to Allah, the Judge, the All-Just. He will judge everyone, and then admit the people of Paradise in Paradise and the people of Hell to Hell.

وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم

(and will vanish from them) meaning what the idolators worshipped,

مَّا كَانُواْ يَفْتَرُونَ

(what they invented) what they worshipped besides Allah that they invented.

In the two verses (27, 28) appearing next, there is a dialogue between the people of Jahannam and the idols or satans who had led them astray. The locale will be the plain of Resurrection. It was said: On that day, We shall gather everyone. Then, to the Mushriks We shall say that, ` you and your gods whom you had associated' with Us in Our divinity stay in your places where you are, so that you can find out the reality of your conviction.' After that, the connection between these people and their so-called gods as it existed in the mortal world will be disconnected. The result will be that their idols will speak up: ` you never worshipped us.' Making Allah their witness, they will say, ` as for us, we were certainly unaware of your worship' - because we have no senses, no movement and no intelligence to understand these matters.

All of the observances of shirk (attributing partners to God) are based on false hopes. Events which occur by God’s will are attributed by man to false gods, which in his self-delusion he makes the centre of his obeisance and worship. He depends so much on these false gods of his that he thinks that even in the Hereafter they will come to his help against God and save him from God’s scourge. These are but false hopes, but in the world their falsehood does not become clear, because due to the conditions of man’s trial here, a veil of secrecy covers every reality. Here man has the opportunity to attribute the various events to his imaginary gods and thus be satisfied with their ‘godliness.’ But in the Hereafter all realities will be laid bare. There, it will become clear that in this universe nobody has power except the one and only God. In the present world, man is living under the misunderstanding that, with the help of his leaders and false gods, he will be successful in the stages of the Hereafter, but in the Hereafter it will suddenly be clear to him that this confidence of his was absolutely false. Here, everybody will be requited according to what he himself has done and all imaginary supports will disappear as if they had never existed.