The Quran

Preface

وَلَو أَنَّ لِكُلِّ نَفسٍ ظَلَمَت ما فِي الأَرضِ لَافتَدَت بِهِ ۗ وَأَسَرُّوا النَّدامَةَ لَمّا رَأَوُا العَذابَ ۖ وَقُضِيَ بَينَهُم بِالقِسطِ ۚ وَهُم لا يُظلَمونَ

Yusuf Ali

Every soul that hath sinned, if it possessed all that is on earth, would fain give it in ransom:¹ They would declare (their) repentance² when they see the penalty: but the judgment between them will be with justice, and no wrong will be done unto them.

Cf. 3:91, and 13:18.
Declare their repentance: the verb in the original is asarru, which may mean either “declare” or “reveal” or else “conceal” or “hide”. The classical Commentators are divided as to the meaning to be adopted here. If the first, which I prefer, the sense would be: “When the Penalty stares the sinners in the face, they would give anything to escape it, and they would even openly declare their repentance, which would be a source of shame and ignominy to them.” If the latter meaning be taken, the sense would be: “They would give anything to escape the Penalty; but the hardest thing of all for them is frankly to confess and repent, and so they conceal their sense of shame and ignominy”, (Cf. 34:33).