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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Exegesis of the verse: ((And repentance is not for those who do evil deeds until death comes to one of them...)).

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Then Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said:
But repentance is not [accepted] of those who [continue to] do evil deeds وليست التوبة للذين يعملون السيئات
[An-Nisa 4:18]
Here He said:
Repentance is not ليست التوبة
and He did not say: "upon Allah," because this repentance is negated by the Shari'ah, so it is not a reality.
But repentance is not [accepted] of those who [continue to] do evil deeds ليست التوبة للذين يعملون السيئات
[An-Nisa 4:18]
"Evil deeds" may refer to the generic category, which is the most apparent, or to the plural, because that is the apparent meaning of the word.
up until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "Indeed, I have repented now," حتى إذا حضر أحدهم الموت قال إني تبت الآن
[An-Nisa 4:18]
These people have no repentance, because their repentance is a repentance of necessity, like one who is coerced into an action; the coerced person's action has no ruling, as is well known: one who is coerced into disbelief while his heart is at peace with faith is not judged a disbeliever. Similarly, this person who repents after he has lost hope in this world and is certain that he is departing: this repentance does not benefit him.
up until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "Indeed, I have repented now," حتى إذا حضر أحدهم الموت قال إني تبت الآن
[An-Nisa 4:18]
Now, when he sees death, he repents; that is, a sincere repentance for a person who knows he has left the world. This is analogous in some respects to His saying (peace and blessings be upon him):
The best of charity is that you give charity while you are healthy, stingy, hoping for a long life, and fearing poverty. خير الصدقة أن تصدق وأنت صحيح شحيح تأمل البقاء وتخشى الفقر
"Consider the one who is healthy; the healthy person expects to live, and he fears poverty because he is stingy."
And do not delay ولا تمهل
This means he delays.
to the time of approaching death and then say, 'Give so much to such and such, and so much to such and such.' And it has already belonged to such and such حتى إذا بلغت الحلقوم قلت لفلان كذا ولفلان كذا وقد كان لفلان
Sahih al-Bukhari 1419
From whom? From the one who had it? The heir. And this happens often: when a person loses hope in his life, he goes to make a will or write for righteous deeds, charity for the poor, printing books, building mosques. Why did he not make a will ten days ago? Because now he has lost hope in his life and knows he is inevitably departing. He said:
or of those who die while they are disbelievers ولا الذين يموتون وهم كفار
[An-Nisa 4:18]
"The waw" is a conjunction, and "la" is an extra letter for emphasis, and
The ones الذين
is conjoined to His saying:
For those who do للذين يعملون
meaning that repentance is also not for those who die while they are disbelievers. Those who die while they are disbelievers have no repentance. The apparent meaning of the verse is problematic, because when a person dies, his deeds are cut off, so how can it say:
or of those who die while they are disbelievers ولا الذين يموتون وهم كفار
[An-Nisa 4:18]
? We say: The intended meaning is their regret on the Day of Resurrection, where they will regret and say:
Oh, would that we could be returned [to life on earth] and not deny the signs of our Lord and be among the believers." يا ليتنا نرد ولا نكذب بآيات ربنا ونكون من المؤمنين
[Al-An'am 6:27]
Allah the Exalted said:
But what they concealed before has [now] appeared to them. And even if they were returned, they would return to that which they were forbidden; and indeed, they are liars. بل بدا لهم ما كانوا يخفون من قبل ولو ردوا لعادوا لما نهوا عنه وإنهم لكاذبون
[Al-An'am 6:28]
So the repentance of the disbeliever after death refers to his regret that he will display on the Day of Resurrection, and that does not benefit him, because the time for action has ended, and only the time for retribution remains, so it does not benefit them.
For them We have prepared a painful punishment. أولئك أعتدنا لهم عذابا أليما
[An-Nisa 4:18]
Those أولئك
The ones referred to are the disbelievers who died upon disbelief; Allah has prepared for them a painful punishment. As for one who dies upon something less than disbelief, his case is up to Allah: if He wills, He will punish him, and if He wills, He will forgive him. So the preparation of the Fire is only for the disbelievers, whereas the sinners may be pardoned and not enter the Fire at all.
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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