p39 Az-Zumar (The Throngs)

Mecca Period 59 [75 verses]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

أَفَمَن يَتَّقِي بِوَجْهِهِ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ...

39:24. Is, then, one who has to fear the brunt of the Penalty on the Day of Judgement (and receive it) on his face, (like one guarded therefrom)?

C4280. The unrepentant Sinners will receive the full Penalty on the Day of Judgment. They will receive it full in the face, i.e., their whole being will be affected by it. Their hands will be tied, and they cannot therefore use their hands to ward off the Penalty of the Fire: in any case their hands will not have the power to ward it off.

Are such helpless people to be compared for a moment with people who have received Grace and are therefore guarded from all harm and danger?

Certainly not.

To the evil the fruit of their deed, and to the good the grace of their Lord!

... وَقِيلَ لِلظَّالِمِينَ ذُوقُوا مَا كُنتُمْ تَكْسِبُونَ ﴿٢٤﴾

It will be said to the wrongdoers:

"Taste ye (the fruits of) what ye earned!"

C4281. That is, of all their misdeeds, all the evil which they did in the world.

Asad’s Version:

39:24 Could, then, one who shall have nothing but his [bare] face to protect him 31 from the awful suffering [that will befall him] on Resurrection Day [be likened to the God-conscious] ? [On that Day,) the evildoers will be told: "Taste [now) what you have earned [in life]!"