As-Sajdah 32:13 - Linguistic Miracle

Had We willed, We would have given each soul its guidance. But the great word from Me came true, ‘I will truly fill Hell with such disbelievers among the Jinn and mankind, in great numbers.”

My translation is extremely different from how this verse is normally translated and even how many exegetes explain it. I will explain in detail below. Guidance here means visibly seeing the things the Qurʾān promises regarding judgment day and its events. In the last verse, the disbelievers became certain that what they used to hear in this world of the Qurʾān was the truth after seeing it with their own eyes. So when Allah says “Had We willed, We would have given each soul its

guidance” He is saying that had Allah so willed, He would have made each and every single person see what the Qurʾān promises with their own eyes and then, they would have surely believed in it like the disbelievers in the last verse.

But the saying from Me came to truth, ‘I will truly fill Hell with the Jinn and mankind, all together- Before explaining this, let us first look at a similar passage in surah Ṣād: قَالَ فَبِعِزَّتِكَ لَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ

Iblīs said, By Your might! I will tempt them all to harm!

إِلَّا عِبَادَكَ مِنْهُمُ ٱلْمُخْلَصِينَ Except your honored servants from them. The chosen ones.

قَالَ فَٱلْحَقُّ وَٱلْحَقَّ أَقُولُ Allah said, This is the truth - and the truth I speak لَأَمْلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنكَ وَمِمَّن تَبِعَكَ مِنْهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ I will fill hell with you and with such of them who follow you, together. (Sad: 82-85) Had Allah wanted, He would have forced you to obey the correct path. But He wanted to give you free will for you to prove yourselves to Him, that you will indeed choose guidance even when faced with the choice to not do so. Because this free will exists, there will be a party that follows Iblīs and chooses error over guidance, and hence, my word that I said to Iblīs that I will fill Hell with you and whoever follows you, has come to pass.

So when Allah says -But the saying from Me came to truth, ‘I will truly fill Hell with the Jinn

and mankind, all together -He is saying that had returning them to the worldly life again so that they could perform righteous deeds was in accordance with divine wisdom,

then We would have created them naturally guided in their worldly life, so that they would perform righteous deeds by compulsion and force with no will or desire towards evil. But I did not want that. I wanted to create mankind with free will to choose between two paths of following Satan or of following Me so that they can be repaid in accordance with what they did; due to which, the party who was misled and trapped by Satan will end up filling Hell and becoming its fuel. I wanted to test mankind and Jinn. Will they believe in my promises and choose the path of righteousness by hearing my word rather than seeing it with their own eyes? Otherwise, I could have shown them with their own eyes what they were promised in the worldly life itself.

Now a few grammatical nuances. Notice how the pronoun shifts from We to I inside the ayah.

Allah does not say But My great word came to truth, rather He says the great word from Me

came to truth. He said it this way to indicate the greatness and grandeur of this word.

The preposition من here is for the purpose of magnification and hence why I added the word great in the translation.

Secondly, the definite article before the words Jinn and mankind is ال العهد which refers to something that is already known or mentioned previously. In this verse, it refers to the disbelievers mentioned in the previous verses, who accused the prophet ﷺ of inventing the Qurʾān by himself to cause corruption, who were unaware of the true nature of death, who denied the meeting with Allah in the hereafter. So it is better rendered as “But a great word from Me came to truth, that I will

fill Hell with such disbelievers of the Jinn and mankind, in great numbers.”

Another possibility is that there is an omitted مضاف which would then mean that I will

fill Hell with the disbelievers of the Jinn and mankind, in great numbers” but this, though true, is not contextually consistent.

Now the words Jinn and mankind. The Qurʾān uses two words for Jinn - جنة and جن .

The pattern of the word used in this ayah, contains meanings of generality and of lowliness. It means the great multitudes of Jinn that are lowly, disgraced and humiliated. Same is the case with the word Mankind. The Qurʾān uses two words إنس and الناس . The word used in this verse - الناس - is for the sake of generality and lowliness

as well. A great number of people disgraced, lowly and humiliated. Allah is saying that a great majority of mankind will act in the same manner as these disbelievers opposing the prophet ﷺ .