In surah Fussilat, Allah tells us that He will address the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement by saying:
وَذَٰلِكُمْ ظَنُّكُمُ الَّذِي ظَنَنتُم بِرَبِّكُمْ أَرْدَاكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُم مِّنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
And that thought of yours which you thought about your Lord has brought you to destruction, and you have become among the losers. [41:23]
Commenting on this in his book of tafsir, Imam al-Qurtubi wrote:
قوله تعالى : وذلكم ظنكم الذي ظننتم بربكم أرداكم أي أهلككم فأوردكم النار . قال قتادة : الظن هنا بمعنى العلم . وقال النبي – صلى الله عليه وسلم – : لا يموتن أحدكم إلا وهو يحسن الظن بالله ، فإن قوما أساءوا الظن بربهم فأهلكهم ، فذلك قوله : وذلكم ظنكم الذي ظننتم بربكم أرداكم . وقال الحسن البصري : إن قوما ألهتهم الأماني حتى خرجوا من الدنيا وما لهم حسنة ، ويقول أحدهم : إني أحسن الظن بربي . وكذب ، ولو أحسن الظن لأحسن العمل ، وتلا قول الله تعالى : وذلكم ظنكم الذي ظننتم بربكم أرداكم فأصبحتم من الخاسرين . وقال قتادة : من استطاع منكم أن يموت وهو حسن الظن بربه فليفعل ، فإن الظن اثنان : ظن ينجي وظن يردي . وقال عمر بن الخطاب في هذه الآية : هؤلاء قوم كانوا يدمنون المعاصي ولا يتوبون منها ويتكلمون على المغفرة ، حتى خرجوا من الدنيا مفاليس ، ثم قرأ : وذلكم ظنكم الذي ظننتم بربكم أرداكم فأصبحتم من الخاسرين . ـ
Allah’s statement:
وَذَٰلِكُمْ ظَنُّكُمُ الَّذِي ظَنَنتُم بِرَبِّكُمْ أَرْدَاكُمْ
And that thought of yours which you thought about your Lord has brought you to destruction …
i.e. has destroyed them and brought them to the fire.
Qatadah said, “The word ‘thought’ here refers to their certainty.”
The Prophet said:
None of you should die unless he had good thoughts of Allah, for there were a people who had bad thoughts of their Lord and so He destroyed them. That was His statement:
وَذَٰلِكُمْ ظَنُّكُمُ الَّذِي ظَنَنتُم بِرَبِّكُمْ أَرْدَاكُمْ
And that thought of yours which you thought about your Lord has brought you to destruction …
al-Hasan al-Basri said, “There are people who indulge their unfounded hopes so much that they leave this world without any good deeds. They say, ‘I have good thoughts of my Lord,’ but they lie, for if they had good thoughts of Him then they would make their actions good.” And then he recited this ayah.
Qatadah said, “Whoever of you is able to die while having good thoughts of his Lord, then let him do so, for there are two types of thoughts: thoughts that save and thoughts that destroy.”
Regarding this ayah, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “They were a people who were addicted to acts of disobedience who did not repent from those acts but spoke about Allah’s forgiveness until they left this world bankrupt,” and then he recited this ayah.
[Jami’ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an 15/315]
Read more similar works in our Tafsir al-Qurtubi Translation Index
Tulayhah 