LessonsSupplementary Practice 28 — Comparative Rhetoric of Sūrat al-Aʿlā and Sūrat al-GhāshiyahQuiz

الَّذِي يَصْلَى النَّارَ الْكُبْرَىٰ ۞ ثُمَّ لَا يَمُوتُ فِيهَا وَلَا يَحْيَىٰ
Who enters the greatest Fire, then neither dies there nor truly lives. (87:12–13)

The relative clause characterizes “the most wretched.” Thumma moves the discourse to a later condition, while the paired negations deny both the finality of death and the relief normally associated with life.

This is not best read as a flat logical contradiction. “Lives” here is understood in the sense of a life possessing comfort or benefit. The paired negatives intensify the picture of punishment.

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Neither death nor life as relief

Supplementary Practice 28 — Comparative Rhetoric of Sūrat al-Aʿlā and Sūrat al-Ghāshiyah

الَّذِي يَصْلَى النَّارَ الْكُبْرَىٰ ۞ ثُمَّ لَا يَمُوتُ فِيهَا وَلَا يَحْيَىٰ
Who enters the greatest Fire, then neither dies there nor truly lives. (87:12–13)

The relative clause characterizes “the most wretched.” Thumma moves the discourse to a later condition, while the paired negations deny both the finality of death and the relief normally associated with life.

This is not best read as a flat logical contradiction. “Lives” here is understood in the sense of a life possessing comfort or benefit. The paired negatives intensify the picture of punishment.