Ar-Rahmaan (The Beneficent)
Verse 39 - 40
Table of Contents
39. Therefore, on that Day no question shall be asked of men or jinn as to their sins.
40. Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both [jinn and men] deny?
Following an account of the formative occurrences of Resurrection, the blessed Verse 39 treats of the state of sinners on that Day saying that jinn and men shall not be questioned concerning their sins, since everything shall be evident on the Day of Emergence (yawm al-buruz) and faces reflect everything.
It may be falsely imagined that the blessed Verse in question is inconsistent with those emphasizing the questioning of servants on the Day of Resurrection, e.g.
"But Stop them, indeed they are to be questioned,"1
and
“Therefore, by your Lord, We shall certainly question all of them for all they used to do,"2 ;
however, the point is that the Day of Resurrection shall be a very long Day and man has to pass different paths and stations and spend some time at each place. According to a number of traditions, such stopping places shall be fifty in number. Questions shall not be asked at some of these places, since faces reveal inward secrets.
At some of these places, mouths shall be sealed and bodily organs bear witness to deeds and words;
("This Day We shall seal up their mouths and their hands shall speak unto Us and their legs shall bear witness to what they used to earn,"3 ).
There are still other places where questions shall be precisely asked1 .
Further, men shall come up pleading:
("The Day when everyone shall come up pleading for himself and everyone shall be paid in full for what he did and they shall not be dealt with unfairly,")5 .
In short, each and every scene has its own conditions and each scene shall be more horrible than another.
The blessed Verse 40 asks the rhetorical question once more:
"Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both [jinn and men] deny?"
Footnotes
37:24; 15:92-93 ↩