Illa mawtatana al-oola wama nahnu bimuAAaththabeen (surah Assaaffat: 59)

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

(37:59) except for our first death? And shall we suffer no chastisement?'' *33

Illa mawtatanal oola wa maa nahnu bimu`azzabeen

*33) The 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 fmd expression through his tongue. The dweller of Paradise, while speaking to the dweller of Hell, suddenly starts feeling how he has been favoured 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?"