As-Sajdah 32:14 - Linguistic Miracle

So taste because you forgot the meeting of this day of yours; We forgot you. Taste the punishment of eternity for what you used to do.

This verse is a direct continuation from verse 12. Verse 13 is actually جملة معترضة - an interjected sentence - between these two verses. The normal flow is as such

If you could but see when the criminals are hanging their heads before their Rabb. Our Rabb! we have seen and heard, so return us; we will work righteousness for we are certain. (13) So taste because you forgot the meeting of this day of yours; We forgot you. Taste the punishment of eternity for what you used to do. (14) When the disbelievers admitted their faults and disbelief, Allah replied - Then taste..... Because you used to deny this meeting, which now you admit by saying “We have

seen and heard”, taste the eternal punishment.

Verse 13 is interjected between this by Allah. Allah does not say those words to the disbelievers on Judgment day. They are interjected. A rather simple example from our daily lives would be: I ate a burger - and it was delicious by the way - at this restaurant. The sentence is actually I ate a burger at this restaurant. You added “and it was delicious by the way” inside a sentence that would have been complete without these words. In Arabic, this is done to state a fact that needs to be known. If you are telling something to people, but in the middle you realize there is something extremely important that you need to say, even if it is not a part of the topic you’re covering, then this is what an interjected sentence does in Arabic.

Verse 13 was an important fact that Allah needed to remind people of. It basically contains a central pillar of our faith in God and His justice. It actually answers major philosophical questions people have long struggled with.

The word “taste” comes two times. In the first sentence, “So taste, because you forgot the

meeting of this day of yours, we forgot you ” it is a complete sentence by itself and is left

open ended. Taste what? Taste the consequences of your actions. It is left open ended because it is implied by the context. Secondly, these people had hung their heads in shame and disgrace in verse 12 which represented a reversal of their prideful state to that of a humble, humiliated servant. So taste also this disgrace and humiliation.

Because you forgot the meeting of this day of yours; We forgot you- it is obvious that they

rejected the hereafter, they did not forget it. These people accused the prophet ﷺ of inventing the Qurʾān, denied resurrection, and had a faulty concept of death that centered on death being the final end. They rejected it, they did not forget it so to speak. As a matter of fact, verse 10 itself says “ Rather, they are disbelievers in the meeting

of their Rabb.”

The answer lies in digging deeper into language itself. The word kufr is normally translated as “disbelief” in the Qurʾān. At its root, kufr means to cover something. We

covered this earlier in surah ʿAbasa. A kāfir- a disbeliever - is someone who buries the seed of faith and good inside him. When something is covered up, it naturally gets forgotten.

This implies that the seed was in fact present inside them. The surah mentioned the rūḥ previously and said that since they neglected their rūḥ, they deny the Qurʾān

and the meeting with God. The rūḥ is already there, present inside them, they can feel it, they can testify to its existence yet they have buried it deep within them; and left it forgotten and neglected. This neglect led them to disbelieve in not only God, but also in the fact that actions have consequences; which is the very central point of this surah. The person who follows his desires and lust, he has no concern for repercussions. Lust, by definition, is the state where desires overpower logic. A person may know that the action leads to bad consequences, yet he still does it under the sheer power and grip of his lust. He is unable to stop himself and does whatever his lust commands him to. Lust does not concern itself with what comes after, but only with what happens then and there; with only the pleasure that it wants to experience in that very moment; and not with what it leads to in the future. Hence, lust by definition, is rejection of the fact that actions bear consequences. Therefore, acting blindly on lust is a rejection of the meeting of God, where all actions are repaid in full with their results.

So because you neglected the spirit of God inside you and buried it under the mud of lust, leaving it forgotten and neglected, you rejected and disbelieved in meeting your God and in receiving the dues of what you earned. Therefore, We forgot you; and left you buried under the mud of shame, guilt, disgrace and humiliation; We neglected your prayer of returning to the world when you said Our Master, we have

seen and heard, so return us; we will work righteousness for we are certain and did not return you.

Therefore -taste the punishment of eternity for what you used to do - You shall not be returned to the world. Rather, you will taste God’s punishment for eternity. Not only shall you be neglected, and buried under disgrace, humiliation and shame in this meeting, you shall be left buried under the fire and boiling water for eternity. You shall be forgotten - you shall be neglected.

What you used to do- Denying the meeting with Allah; and denying the fact that people will be repaid for their actions in the hereafter led them to commit such actions that led them to the fire. Their actions were a natural consequence of their lack of belief in the final meeting with Allah. If a criminal knows he will get away with his crime without paying any price, will he stop? He will commit it gleefully. If he knows he will get away with them, he will only commit more crimes, which is exactly what happened with these people.