As-Sajdah 32:21 - Linguistic Miracle

We will surely let such people taste the nearer punishment short of the greater punishment so they may return.

Allah will go on to explain what this nearer punishment actually is. He will create a like by like description of what has come before in this surah, of what happens with

the disbelievers on Judgment Day, with the nearer and smaller punishment that they will experience in this world. He will describe it in exactly the same manner from verse 23 onwards. What has been described thus far is the greatest punishment of Allah. Next, He will describe the lesser - the nearer punishment - inside this earth by mirroring the exact sequence as before.

The sentence “We will surely let them taste” has threefold emphasis; first via the letter

lām then by two nūn. In Arabic, this type of emphasis is placed when addressing someone who denies what you are saying.

This is addressed to the fāsiq. I explained earlier how blindly acting on lust is a rejection of the hereafter, by definition. The obvious incentive to break out of Allah’s limits is to gain immediate pleasure and worldly gain in front of you. People steal to gain the pleasure of money, they lie to gain a certain benefit or avert a harm that may come to them, they fornicate because of bodily pleasure etc. When one is caught up in such pleasures, that is all they can think of as we see around us. They get lost in the world of their pleasures.

Hence, Allah emphasizes to these people that He will take away this pleasure, and punish them as they sit intoxicated under it. ʿAdhāb- translated as punishment- at its

root means sweetness. This root was used in its exact opposite meaning of punishment as it denotes the removal of this sweetness and comfort.

The pleasures they are indulging in, the sweetness that they feel, the comfort they have received by disobeying Allah; Allah will take it away and replace it with regret and emptiness. We see this in our lives. One may be wealthy and well off, have access to everything he wants, but feel miserable and empty inside. This has led some to even commit suicide as we have seen. What appears to the eyes is different from what is hidden inside the chests. A person may display money and happiness, but deep inside he may feel terrible and worthless.

So they may return - so they may realize the folly of these pleasures and desires, and

return to the path they were actually meant to follow to obtain the perfect comfort described in verse 19, not this temporary fleeting pleasure that transforms into guilt. Notice how Allah calls it the nearer punishment with respect to the greatest punishment. Naturally, when coupling these two, we would say the smaller punishment and the greater punishment. Allah did it for two reasons. One, when you say “ the smaller

punishment”, it gives the impression that this punishment is small, meager and hence, it is possible to overcome it. Secondly, it is a threat that it is near and not far.

This punishment will be severe in itself, but an even greater punishment awaits you if you do not return. When a person tastes this punishment, which is immense and severe in itself, he will naturally become afraid of the punishment that is even greater

than the one he is experiencing, and hence this will open the door of repentance for him.

Also notice how Allah refers to these people in third person rather than directly addressing them. Third person pronouns are used for people far away, not present with you. Currently, lost in their desires, they are far away from Allah such that they have to be addressed in third person. Allah makes them taste the nearer punishment so that they may return and become close to Allah, such that Allah can address them directly, just as we address the person present with us, in the second person.