Synthesis: Sūrat al-Jāthiya 21–26

Triangulating Majmaʿ al-Bayān (Ṭabarsī), al-Tibyān (Ṭūsī), al-Burhān (Baḥrānī), Tafsīr al-Qummī, al-Mīzān (Ṭabāṭabāʾī), and the Enlightening Commentary.

Human-review flags: al-Mīzān — the long bayān on vv. 20–37 condensed to this passage; its reading of v. 24 as the idolaters (not the Dahriyya) noted as-attributed. Qummī / al-Burhān — the sabab and identification narrations on v. 21 (Banū Hāshim vs Banū ʿAbd Shams; ʿAlī, Ḥamza, ʿUbayda vs ʿUtba, Shayba, al-Walīd) and the caliphate-usurpation gloss on v. 23 rendered strictly as-attributed, not endorsed.

What the passage says. The evildoers are rebuked for supposing that God will make them ʻlike those who believe and do righteous deeds — their life and death being equalʼ (v. 21); rather, ʻGod created the heavens and the earth with truth, that every soul be requited for what it earnedʼ (v. 22). The portrait sharpens to the man who ʻtook his desire as his god,ʼ whom God ʻled astray upon knowledgeʼ (v. 23); then to the deniers who say ʻnothing but time destroys usʼ (v. 24) and demand ʻbring back our fathersʼ (v. 25) — answered by ʻSay: God gives you life, then makes you die, then gathers youʼ (v. 26).

Life and death not equal (vv. 21–22). al-Mīzān gives the fullest reading: the parties differ in life (the faithful walk upon insight and mercy, the evildoer empty of both, cf. Q20:124) and in death (which is no annihilation but a return to God), and v. 22 packs two proofs of the Return — one from truth (a true creation needs an abiding sequel) and one from justice (each soul requited what it earned) — echoing Q38:27-28. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī add the concrete image (angels meeting believers with glad tidings, unbelievers with blows) and Mujāhid's dictum that each dies and is raised upon his state; the Enlightening Commentary reads v. 22 as grounding requital in the very truth of creation.

ʻHis desire as his godʼ (v. 23). Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī offer the standard glosses (Ibn ʿAbbās: he takes as religion whatever he craves; ʿIkrima and Saʿīd b. Jubayr: the pagan who discards one idol for a finer). al-Mīzān deepens it: the word-order shows he knows he owes worship to God yet installs his caprice in God's place, ʻworshipʼ here meaning obedience (cf. Q9:31; Q36:60-61); ʻastray upon knowledgeʼ means straying is compatible with knowledge unacted-upon (cf. Q27:14) — and al-Mīzān expressly rejects the reading ʻupon [God's] knowledge.ʼ Against this, Qummī and al-Burhān apply the verse to Quraysh and, pointedly, to the post-Prophetic usurpation of ʿAlī's imamate, and al-Burhān pairs v. 21 with narrations naming the Badr protagonists of the two clans — all rendered strictly as-attributed.

ʻNothing but time destroys usʼ (vv. 24–26). Here the sources diverge instructively. Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and the Enlightening Commentary read v. 24 as the materialists' (Dahriyya) denial of the Maker, citing the ḥadīth ʻdo not curse time (al-dahr), for God is al-dahrʼ with Ṭabarsī's taʾwīl (the pagans blamed calamities on time; the real Doer is God). Qummī likewise names the Dahriyya, then extends the verse to the post-Prophetic community. al-Mīzān, however, argues from the sūra's flow — an argument against idolaters who affirm a Maker but deny the Return — that the speakers are the polytheists, ʻwe die and we liveʼ meaning the race continues by successive generations; he weighs and sets aside the transmigration (tanāsukh) reading. All agree the demand ʻbring our fathersʼ is obstinate mockery, and that v. 26 answers it by the argument from first creation: whoever gives life once can do so again.