Tafsir LabMethodGitHubTürkçe

al-Zumar 39:19-20

The Qurʾān · Sūra 39: al-Zumar · verses 19-20

This commentary was written by Claude (Anthropic); it carries no religious authority and should be checked against the classical sources.

39/19-20

أَفَمَنْ حَقَّ عَلَيْهِ كَلِمَةُ ٱلْعَذَابِ أَفَأَنتَ تُنقِذُ مَن فِى ٱلنَّارِ · لَٰكِنِ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ رَبَّهُمْ لَهُمْ غُرَفٌ مِّن فَوْقِهَا غُرَفٌ مَّبْنِيَّةٌ

"One against whom the word of punishment has come true… will you rescue the one who is in the Fire? But for those who guard themselves against their Lord there are chambers built one above another."

أَفَأَنتَ تُنقِذُ — the question is directed at the addressee, and the pronoun is brought forward: a-fa-anta — "is it you?"

I record this as an observation: the sentence draws a limit of responsibility. In al-Aḥqāf at 46/35 the same limit had been set with the word balāgh (delivery); here it comes in the form of a question. And it will be said plainly in the forty-first verse of the sūra: wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-wakīl.

غُرَفٌ مِّن فَوْقِهَا غُرَفٌ مَّبْنِيَّة — "chambers with chambers above them".

The choice of image is worth recording: the reward is described not with a garden or a river but with a building of storeys. The adjective mabniyya (built) is set down as well.

The language of the descriptions of the Garden, and their being chosen from the life of the one addressed, were treated in detail in al-Wāqiʿa; I rely on that treatment. This much may be recorded in addition here: a house of storeys is an image that carries value in a city, not in the desert.


The whole of Sūrat al-Zumar