Jonah
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[10:54]
And all human beings that have been doing evil would surely, if they possessed all that is on earth, offer it as ransom [on Judgment Day]; and when they see the suffering [that awaits them], they will be unable to express their remorse. But judgment will be passed on them in all equity; and they will not be wronged.

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* v.54 : In this instance, by deliberately giving the lie to the Prophet and rejecting the message of the Qur’ān.
* Cf. 3:91 and the corresponding note 71.
* The primary meaning of the verb asarrahu is “he concealed it” or “he kept it secret,” thus, the phrase asarru ’n-nadāmah (expressed in the past tense but in the above context obviously denoting a future event) could be rendered as “they will conceal their remorse.” In view, however, of the many statements in the Qur’ān that on the Day of Judgment the sinners will not only not conceal but will, rather, stress their remorse, some of the commentators (e.g., Baghawī, on the authority of Abū ‘Ubaydah) are of the opinion that in this particular verse the verb asarra denotes the opposite of its primary meaning and, accordingly, interpret the phrase as “they will manifest their remorse.” But the linguistic validity of this rather forced interpretation has been emphatically contested by many philologists, and particularly by Abū Mansūr Al-Azharī (cf. Lane IV, 1337); and since there is no convincing reason to disregard the original significance of the verb asarra with its implication of “concealment,” the above Qur’anic phrase must be understood (as Zamakhsharī understands it), in the metonymical sense of an involuntary “concealment,” that is, the sinners’ inability to express the full depth of their remorse.