Surely those who disbelieve and die disbelieving the whole earth full of gold shall not be accepted from any one of them if he would ransom himself thereby; for them awaits a painful chastisement and they shall have no helpers. This alludes to the one who dies after becoming listless. Even if he had a beautiful beginning he will not be gathered in the hereafter with the people of this story ahl hādhi al-qiṣṣa even if a thousand of those with deeper knowledge were to intercede for him. Indeed the perfection of the ruse with him is that his image will be cast onto someone else in the hereafter so that his acquaintances among the people of deeper knowledge ahl al-maʿrifa will think that it is him but it will not occur to anyone that he should intercede for him.
