50فَأَقْبَلَ بَعْضُهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ يَتَسَآءَلُونَ
51قَالَ قَآئِلٌ مِّنْهُمْ إِنِّى كَانَ لِى قَرِينٌ
52يَقُولُ أَءِنَّكَ لَمِنَ ٱلْمُصَدِّقِينَ
53أَءِذَا مِتْنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابًا وَعِظَـٰمًا أَءِنَّا لَمَدِينُونَ
54قَالَ هَلْ أَنتُم مُّطَّلِعُونَ
55فَٱطَّلَعَ فَرَءَاهُ فِى سَوَآءِ ٱلْجَحِيمِ
56قَالَ تَٱللَّهِ إِن كِدتَّ لَتُرْدِينِ
57وَلَوْلَا نِعْمَةُ رَبِّى لَكُنتُ مِنَ ٱلْمُحْضَرِينَ
58أَفَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَيِّتِينَ
59إِلَّا مَوْتَتَنَا ٱلْأُولَىٰ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمُعَذَّبِينَ
[50-59] Then they will turn to one another to ask questions. One of them will say, "I had a friend in the world, who used to say, 'Are you also of those who affirm?31 What! when we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we really be rewarded and punished?' Now, do you want to see where that man is?" Saying this as he will look down, he will see him in the depth of Hell. He will address him, saying, "By God! you had almost ruined me. But for the favor of my Lord, I also should have been among those who have been seized and brought here.32 Well! Are we not to die any other than our first death? Are we not to be punished?"33
31That is, "Were you also one of those credulous people who put their faith in an irrational and impossible thing like life-after-death ?"
32This shows how powerful will be man's hearing, seeing and speaking powers in the Hereafter. Sitting in Paradise he bends his head a little and is able to see a person, who is undergoing torment thousands of miles away in Hell, without the agency of a television set. Then, they not only just see each other, but also commune with each other directly without the medium of the telephone or radio and they speak and hear each other over vast distances.
33The style clearly shows that while speaking to his friend in Hell, the dweller of Paradise suddenly starts talking to himself. He speaks these three sentences in a way as if he found himself in a state much better than that he ever expected and imagined for himself, and now being beside himself with wonder and joy he is engaged in a sort of soliloquy. In such a state the speaker does not speak to an addressee, nor the questions he asks are meant to find out something from somebody, but in this state the man's own feelings find expression through his tongue. The dweller of Paradise, while speaking to the dweller of Hell, suddenly starts feeling how he has been favored by good fortune: now there is neither death nor any torment: all troubles and distresses have come to an end and he has been blessed with immortality. Under this very feeling he exclaims: "Well arc we not to die any other than our first death ? Are we not to be punished?"