Fayawma-ithin la yus-alu AAan thanbihi insun wala jan (surah Rahman: 39)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(55:39) On that Day there will be no need to ask either men or jinn about their sins. *36

Fa-yawma`izil laa yus`alu `an zambiheee insunw wa laa jaann

*36) This is being explained by the subsequent sentence: "The culprits there shall be recognized by their faces." It means that in that great assembly where aII the former and the latter generations will have gathered together, there will be no need to ask as to who are the culprits, nor will any man or jinn need be asked whether he is a culprit or not. The dejected faces of the culprits, their terror-stricken eyes, their disturbed and alarmed countenances will themselves be enough to expose the secret that they are the culprits. When a crowd comprising both the guilty and the innocent people, is encircled by the police, the calm and tranquil of the innocent people and the bewildered and disturbed state of the guilty ones tell at one glance as to who in the crowd is the culprit and who is innocent. This general rule is in most cases belied in the world, because the worldly police do not enjoy the reputation of being fair and just, rather on many an occasion they have turned out to be more bothersome for the gentle and innocent people than for the culprits. Therefore, here it is possible that when encircled by the police the gentle and innocent people might become even more terror-stricken than the criminals, but in the Hereafter, when every noble person will have complete faith in the justice of AIlah, bewilderment will afflict only those whose conscience will be conscious of their being the culprits themselves, and who on their very arrival in the Court of God will become certain of their doom, which they had regarded as impossible or doubtful in the world and so had been committing every heinous sin and crime.