95 Preface وَلَن يَتَمَنَّوهُ أَبَدًا بِما قَدَّمَت أَيديهِم ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَليمٌ بِالظّالِمينَYusuf AliBut they will never seek for death, on account of the (sins) which their hands have sent on before them1. And God is well-acquainted with the wrong-doers.The phrase “What their hands have sent on before them” frequently occurs in the Qur-ān. Here and in many places, it refers to sins. In such passages as 78:40 or 81:14, it is implied that both good and bad deeds go before us to the Judgment Seat of God before we do ourselves. In 2:110, it is the good that goes before us. Our deeds are personified. They are witnesses for or against us, and they always go before us. Their good or bad influence begins to operate before we even know it. This is more general than the New Testament idea in the First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, 5:24 : “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” (Cf. 3:182 and n. 225)