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'" lis inheritors, for your Dccds (of righteousness)." The Companions of thc Garden Will call out to the Companions Of thc Firc: "We havc Indced found thc promises Of our Lord to us truc: Havc you also found Your Lord's promises true?" Thcy shall say, "Ycs": but lO23 A Cricr shall proclaim Betwecn them: "The curse Of Allah is on the wrong-docrs;"Those who would hinder (men) From the path of Allah Desiring to make Something crooked: 1U24 They were those who Denied the Hereafter." Between them shall be A veil, and on the Heightsl02.~
= greater reward, the kingdom of heaven. In the Sermon on the Mount this is promised to the "poor in spirit": Matt. v. 3. 1023. The Companions of the Fire can only answer a single word, "Yes," such is their state of misery. Even so, their voice is drowned in the voice of the Crier, who explains their state: they are in a state of curse, that is. deprivation of the grace and mercy of Allah. Such deprivation is the highest misery that souls can suffer. 1024. The unrighteous reflect their own crooked minds when the path of Allah is before them. Instead of going straight. they try to find something in it that suits their own crooked ideas. Frankly they have no faith in the final Goal, the Hereafter. 1025. This is a difficult passage, and Commentators have interpreted it in different ways. Three distinct schools of thought may be discerned in the interpretation. (I) One school thinks that the men on the Heights are angels, or such men of exalted spiritual dignity (e.g., the great prophets), as will be able to know the souls at sight as regards their rcal worth: the Heights will be their exalted stations, from which they will welcome the righteous with a salutation of peace, even before the righteous have entered heaven; the salutation of peace being itself an assurance of salvation to those whom they salute. (2) Another school of thought thinks that the men on the Heights are such souls as are not decidedly on the side of merit or decidedly on the side of sin, but evenly balanced on a partition between heaven and hell. Their case is yet to be decided, but their salutation to the righteous is a wistful salutation, because they hope for Allah's Mercy.
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