The Quran

Preface

قَد خَسِرَ الَّذينَ كَذَّبوا بِلِقاءِ اللَّهِ ۖ حَتّىٰ إِذا جاءَتهُمُ السّاعَةُ بَغتَةً قالوا يا حَسرَتَنا عَلىٰ ما فَرَّطنا فيها وَهُم يَحمِلونَ أَوزارَهُم عَلىٰ ظُهورِهِم ۚ أَلا ساءَ ما يَزِرونَ

Yusuf Ali

Lost indeed are they who treat it as a falsehood that they must meet God,- until on a sudden the hour is on them, and they say: “Ah! woe unto us that we took no thought of it”; for they bear their burdens¹ on their backs, and evil indeed are the burdens that they bear?

Grievous is the burden of sins which the wicked will bear on their backs when they become conscious of them. Some commentators personify sins as ugly demons riding on the backs of men, while the men’s good deeds become the strong and patient mounts which will carry the men on their backs. If the good deeds are few and the sins many, the man and his good deeds will be crushed under the load of the Evil which they carry (Cf. 20:101).