Tafsir of Surah Fatir - Verse 7

The Punishment of the Disbeliever and the Reward of the Believer on the Day of Resurrection

Having stated that the ultimate destiny of the followers of Iblis will be the blazing Fire, Allah then tells us that for those who disbelieve there will be a severe punishment. This is because they obeyed the Shaytan and disobeyed Ar-Rahman. And He tells us that those who believed in Allah and His Messengers

وَعَمِلُواْ الصَّـلِحَـتِ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ

(and do righteous good deeds, theirs will be forgiveness) meaning, from whatever sins they did,

وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ

and a great reward. for the good deeds that they did. Then Allah says:

أَفَمَن زُيِّنَ لَهُ سُوءَ عَمَلِهِ فَرَءَاهُ حَسَناً

(Is he, then, to whom the evil of his deeds is made fairseeming, so that he considers it as good) meaning, `such as disbelievers or immoral persons who do evil deeds and believe that they are doing something good, i.e., a person who is like that has been misguided by Allah, so what can you do for him You cannot help him at all.'

فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ

(Verily, Allah sends astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills.) means according to His decree.

فَلاَ تَذْهَبْ نَفْسُكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسَرَتٍ

(So destroy not yourself in sorrow for them. ) means, do not grieve about that, for Allah is Wise in His decree and He leaves astray whomsoever He leaves astray, and He guides whomsoever He guides, and in doing so He has perfect knowledge and wisdom. Allah says:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ

(Truly, Allah is the All-Knower of what they do!)

Commentary

The word: غَرُ‌ورُ‌ (gharur) is an emphatic form of an adjective that means one who is very deceiving (hence, rendered here as 'big deceiver' ). It refers to the Shaitan (Satan) whose sole job is to deceive people and throw them into disbelief and sin. And the expression لَا يَغُرَّ‌نَّكُم بِاللَّـهِ الْغَرُ‌ورُ‌ (5) means 'nor should you be deceived about Allah'. To explain this deception, it can be said that the Shaitan may not, by showing your evil deeds as good, cause you to become so involved with these that you reach the stage when you go on committing a sin and, at the same time, keep thinking that you are of those accepted in the sight of Allah, and that you will not have to undergo any punishment.' (Qurtubi)

On the face of it, the facts of life (and hereafter), though conveyed to us by God through His prophets, appear to be figments of human imagination, because they are not immediately encountered. Conversely, the things of the present world appear to be real, because man encounters them today itself. Sudden death, the upheaval of earthquakes and other such incidents shake a man’s composure. These, in fact, remind one of Doomsday, before its actual occurrence. But, Satan immediately diverts the attention of the people by saying that these events have natural causes and are not a result of divine intervention. That day is bound to come when a distinction will be drawn between the true and the false; righteous people will be rewarded for their virtue and wrongdoers will be punished for their evil deeds.