2/161-162 — The moment the door closes
"Those who cover over the truth and die as unbelievers — upon them is the curse of God, of the angels and of all people. They abide in it; their punishment is not lightened, nor are they granted respite."
At verse 159 a curse was recorded for those who conceal, and at verse 160 an exception was brought: "Except those who repent, put things right and make clear." The door had been left open.
The word order is built accordingly. The sentence uses two verbs: kafarū (they covered over) and mātū (they died). Without the second the ruling is not settled. And a circumstantial clause is added to the second verb — wa hum kuffār, "while they were unbelievers" — that is, the state at the moment of death is recorded.
This is the line the sūra follows in establishing a ruling: what is taken as the basis is not a person's state at some moment but his final state. At verse 160 the road of return had been opened; here it is said that that road has a term.
The root ل-ع-ن: to drive off, to put at a distance. The lexicographers explain the word with ṭard and ibʿād — to drive someone from one's side, to cast him far off. In Turkish the borrowed lânet, and in English the word "curse", both add a suggestion of imprecation; whereas the central idea in Arabic is driving away.
This difference matters. A curse states not an insult but a position: being outside the reach of mercy.
The threefold sequence is striking, and the last is surprising: all people. Yet the persons described have partisans, fellow townsmen and partners in interest in this world.
In the classical commentaries this expression is generally explained in two ways: either what is meant is that on the day of resurrection everyone will unite in the same judgement, or the expression "all people" is a widespread general expression in Arabic. I do not impose a preference between the two.
What can be recorded is this: the sentence does not take into account a person's supporters in this world. The four negations enumerated at verse 48 of the sūra — no soul can pay for another, no intercession is accepted, no ransom is taken, they are not helped — work here once more, in different words.
The root خ-ل-د: to remain a long time, to be lasting. The lexicographers record that the root carries the idea of "remaining unchanged" — in Arabic it is used of what does not grow old, whose state does not deteriorate.
A note on the word order: the pronoun fīhā is feminine, and the nearest feminine word is curse. The sentence therefore says literally "they abide within the curse". Some exegetes attach the pronoun to the fire or the punishment understood from the context. Both readings are transmitted; I state no preference. But there is something worth recording in the first reading: what is abided in comes to be named not as a place but as a state.
First, lightening. Takhfīf — the reducing of a burden. What is closed off is not the removal of the punishment but the lowering of its degree.
Second, respite. لَا هُمْ يُنظَرُونَ — root ن-ظ-ر: to look; in Form IV (anẓara) it means to grant a term, to wait. The lexicographers make the connection thus: to give someone a respite is to "look" to him, that is, to watch over his affair for a time.
فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ مَيْسَرَةٍ — "if he is in difficulty, then a respite until ease" (2/280)
The same root, the same sūra, two opposite rulings. For the debtor a respite is commanded in this world; here it is said that respite ends at some point.
I record this as my own reading: read together, the two verses yield a balance. Respite is what a person owes to a person; and it is valuable precisely because it is not endless. On the one hand the sūra commands postponement, on the other it recalls that postponement has an end.
And this measure is consistent with verse 160 itself: there the door of return was opened; here it is said that that door has a time. The two do not conflict — one states the possibility, the other the term of the possibility.