حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءَ أَحَدَهُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ قَالَ رَبِّ ٱرْجِعُونِ · لَعَلِّىٓ أَعْمَلُ صَٰلِحًا فِيمَا تَرَكْتُ كَلَّآ إِنَّهَا كَلِمَةٌ هُوَ قَآئِلُهَا وَمِن وَرَآئِهِم بَرْزَخٌ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ
ḥattā idhā jāʾa aḥadahumu'l-mawtu qāla rabbi'rjiʿūn · laʿallī aʿmalu ṣāliḥan fīmā taraktu, kallā, innahā kalimatun huwa qāʾiluhā, wa min warāʾihim barzakhun ilā yawmi yubʿathūn
"Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: 'My Lord, send me back — that I may do a righteous deed in what I have left behind!' No. It is a word he speaks, no more. And behind them is a barrier until the day they are raised."
It was tabulated at the sixty-fourth verse: the pattern occurs three times in the sūra (64, 77, 99). This is the third and the most final of them — because the others tell of a punishment, this one tells of death.
And this is the most disputed place in the verse: the address is singular (rabbi — "my Lord"), the imperative plural (irjiʿūn — "send me back", addressed to more than one).
| Reading | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 1 | A plural of respect (taʿẓīm) — in Arabic the plural is used for honour |
| 2 | A plural for repetition — it stands in place of saying "send me back, send me back, send me back" |
| 3 | Rabbi is a vocative; irjiʿūn is addressed to the angels — to those who take the soul |
| 4 | The words are spoken in a moment of bewilderment, out of order |
And the nūn at the end of the verb arises, as recorded at the ninety-eighth verse, from the dropping of the first-person yāʾ: its original is irjiʿūnī.
| Reading | What mā taraktu is |
|---|---|
| 1 | The property he left behind — to do good with it |
| 2 | The works he left undone — what he neglected |
| 3 | The world he has left — in general |
كَلَّا — a particle of rejection and rebuke. The lexicographers explain the word as "no, it is not so" and record that in the Qurʾān it mostly occurs in the rejection of a request or a claim. The word was treated in al-Qiyāma, ʿAbasa and al-Takāthur.
| Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | "This is only a word he speaks" — that is, it has no effect, an empty word |
| 2 | "He will go on saying it" — the active participle qāʾiluhā reports continuance |
| 3 | "This word tells against him" — saying it does not lift the responsibility |
And the word order must be recorded: huwa qāʾiluhā — a nominal sentence and an active participle. Had a verb been used (yaqūluhā) it would have reported a single act; the active participle reports that the word has stuck to the one who says it. I give this as an observation about the word order.
بَرْزَخ — the screen between two things, an intervening zone. The lexicographers state that the word is a separator that comes between two things and keeps them from mingling.
And it had occurred at al-Raḥmān 55/20 as well (baynahumā barzakhun lā yabghiyān). I rely on that treatment.
| Place | Sentence | Between what | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| al-Raḥmān 55/20 | baynahumā barzakhun lā yabghiyān | Two waters — sweet and salt | A barrier in space |
| al-Furqān 25/53 | wa jaʿala baynahumā barzakhan wa ḥijran maḥjūrā | Two waters | A barrier in space |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/100 | wa min warāʾihim barzakhun ilā yawmi yubʿathūn | Death and resurrection | A barrier in time |
The same word: in the first two a barrier in space, in the third a barrier in time. This is a difference that can be verified from the three texts.
And the wording that marks the difference must be recorded: ilā yawmi yubʿathūn — "until the day they are raised". In al-Furqān and al-Raḥmān the barrier had no end date; here it has one.
I record this as my own reading, its ground being this difference of particle (bayna / ilā): the barrier between the two waters stands between two sides and is without term; the barrier here lasts up to a time. The word does the same work, that is — it prevents passage — but its measure changes.
Under this verse I build no description of the character of life in the barzakh. On the state of the grave, the condition of souls, what happens there, I transmit no report and I do not speculate.
| # | What | The wording |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | There is a barrier | Barzakh |
| 2 | It is behind them | min warāʾihim |
| 3 | It lasts until a time | ilā yawmi yubʿathūn |
Beyond this the verse gives no information. The rules recorded in Method — "do not ascribe a saying you are not sure of" and "do not present your own inference as a transmitted report" — are applied here exactly.
The lexicographers enter a note on the construction min warāʾihim, and I pass it on: warāʾ in Arabic can mean both behind and in front — so it can also be read "before them". Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.
The same request was treated in two other places in this series, and the two were tabulated at al-Sajda 32/12. The third is here, and I extend the table:
| Fāṭir 35/37 | al-Sajda 32/12 | al-Muʾminūn 23/99-100 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The verb | akhrijnā — bring us out | irjiʿnā — send us back | irjiʿūn — send me back (plural) |
| Where it is said | Inside the Fire — yaṣṭarikhūna fīhā | In the presence — ʿinda rabbihim | At the moment of death — jāʾa aḥadahumu'l-mawt |
| Who says it | A group — plural | A group — plural | A single person — aḥadahum |
| For what | naʿmal ṣāliḥan ghayra'lladhī kunnā naʿmal | naʿmal ṣāliḥan innā mūqinūn | aʿmalu ṣāliḥan fīmā taraktu |
| The answer given | a-wa-lam nuʿammirkum… — a term had been given | No answer — verse 13 says something else | kallā — a direct refusal |
| What follows | fa-mā li'l-ẓālimīna min naṣīr | wa law shiʾnā la-ātaynā kulla nafsin hudāhā | Barzakh — a barrier is reported |
All three requests ask for the same act: naʿmal ṣāliḥan / aʿmalu ṣāliḥan. This is an overlap that can be verified from the three texts.
And the finding recorded in al-Sajda goes one step further here. What was written there was this:
The request in Fāṭir puts forward the mending of deeds, the request in al-Sajda puts forward knowledge. Both make a ground of what is claimed to have been lacking in this world — and both grounds are invalidated by the verse itself.
One. A difference of time. The requests in Fāṭir and al-Sajda are spoken in the hereafter. The request in al-Muʾminūn is at the moment of death — that is, at the earliest point.
Two. A difference of number. The others are from the mouth of a group; this one from the mouth of a single person (aḥadahum).
Three. The form of the answer. Fāṭir gives a ground ("a term had been given"), al-Sajda shifts the answer elsewhere, al-Muʾminūn refuses in a single word: kallā.
Four. And only al-Muʾminūn reports a barrier. In the other two verses the reason why there will be no return was explained by a ground; here a structure is set down: the barzakh.
And this request will return once more within the sūra, in the hundred and seventh verse: rabbanā akhrijnā minhā. In the same sūra, that is, the request is made twice — once at the moment of death, once inside the Fire. Both are refused. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and it will be treated separately at the hundred and seventh verse.