Al-Ahqaf (The Dunes)

17. But he who says to his parents: “Fie upon you both! Do you hold out the promise to me that I shall be raised up [from the grave posthumously] when generations before me have passed away?” While they invoke Allah for help [and say unto him]: “Woe to you! Believe! Verily, the Promise of Allah is true.” But he says: “This [promise] is nothing but the tales of the ancient.”

18. They are those against whom the Word [of torment] is justified among the previous generations of Jinn and mankind that have passed away. Indeed, they are ever the losers.

Unworthy children insult their parents;

(“Fie upon you both!”)

but faithful and compassionate parents seek God’s assistance to guide their children and ask them to do good deeds and keep away from vices.

In the Verse in question, mention is made of unfaithful and ungrateful individuals who are cursed by their parents:

“He who says to his parents: ‘Fie upon you both! Do you hold out the promise to me that I shall be raised up when generations before me have passed away?’”

Faithful parents do not desist before their obdurate son,

“they invoke Allah for help [and say unto him]: ‘Woe to you! Believe! Verily, the Promise of Allah is true.’”

But he says:

“This [promise] is nothing but the tales of the ancient.”

What you say concerning the Last Day and Reckoning is superstitions and legends of the ancients and I shall never submit to believing them.

The qualities enumerated in this Verse concerning such obdurate individuals are as follows:

1. disrespect toward parents, since

“Fie”

refers to impurities and connotes insult and humiliation.¹

2. Such people not only disbelieve in the Last Day but also mock such belief and regard it on a par with legends and superstitions

3. Enjoining them to embrace the true faith falls onto deaf ears as they do not submit to the Divine Will and they are conceited with false pride and ignorance. Compassionate parents make every attempt to rescue their obdurate children from the abyss of ignorance and the painful torment in the world to come; however, the unworthy children persist in their disbelief and their parents find no other alternative but to leave them.

According to Verse 18:

“Obdurate disbelievers are those against whom the Word [of torment] is justified among the previous generations of Jinn and mankind that have passed away. Indeed, they are ever the losers [viz. they shall suffer the painful chastisement and shall abide in Hell].

The reason is that they are all losers. What loss is worse that losing all one’s capabilities and gaining the Divine Wrath? In comparing the dwellers of Paradise and Hell in these Verses we notice that one group attain to growth and development and the other loss all their capabilities and turn into losers.

The former are grateful to God and their parents but the latter are ungrateful and show their disrespect to their parents. The former shall abide in Paradise near to God and the latter are the dwellers of Hell to abide there among faithless people.

Each of them joins their lot. The former repent of their sins and faults and submit to the Will of God and the latter are rebels sunken in false pride. It is to be noted that the latter are obdurate in their deviation from the true path and rely on their predecessors and shall be raised up in Hell with their likes.”