As-Sajda (The Prostration)

12. “And if you could see when the guilty hang down their heads before their Lord (saying): ‘Our Lord! We have seen and we have heard (what You had promised), therefore send us back (to the world) we will do righteousness, verily (now) we are certain.”

The present arrogance of the guilty results to their shame in Hereafter, since the Hereafter Day is the Day of manifestation of facts and it is the time when the eyes and the ears will work properly.

So, this verse says:

“And if you could see when the guilty hang down their heads before their Lord (saying): ‘Our Lord! We have seen and we have heard (what You had promised), therefore send us back (to the world) we will do righteousness, verily (now) we are certain.”

At that time, you will wonder, and verily you will surprise that whether these regretful persons who have cast down their heads are the same arrogant ones who did not accept any fact in the world.

But now that they see the scenes of Hereafter and reach the state of intuition, they change their situation. Even this change of situation and awareness is temporary and, according to some other verses of the Qur’an, if they return to this world they will continue their own previous manner.¹

The Arabic term /nakis/ is derived from /taks/ in the sense of ‘turning something upside down’, and here it means ‘to hang down one’s head’.

The Qur’anic term /’absirna/ (we have seen) is mentioned before the term /sami‘na/ (we have heard) and it is for the sake that on the Hereafter Day at first man encounters the scenes and then he hears the judgment of Allah and His angels.

Any how, it is understood from what was said that the purpose of the word ‘guilty’ here is disbelievers and the deniers of Hereafter in particular.

However, this is not the first time that we see in the verses of the Holy Qur’an that when the guilty see the fruit of their deed and observe the signs of Allah’s punishment they will become seriously regretful and ask to return to the world, while from the point of Allah’s way of treatment such a return is surely impossible.

It is similar to the fact that the return of a child to the mother’s womb is impossible and the return of the picked fruit to the tree is not possible either.

This point is also noteworthy that the guilty ask to return to the world in order to do only righteous deeds. This matter makes it clear that on Hereafter Day the only man’s capital for becoming delivered is righteous deeds, the deeds that are done by a pure heart, full of faith, and sincere intention.