21 Preface أَم حَسِبَ الَّذينَ اجتَرَحُوا السَّيِّئَاتِ أَن نَجعَلَهُم كَالَّذينَ آمَنوا وَعَمِلُوا الصّالِحاتِ سَواءً مَحياهُم وَمَماتُهُم ۚ ساءَ ما يَحكُمونَYusuf AliWhat! Do those who seek after evil ways think that We shall hold them equal with1 those who believe and do righteous deeds,- that equal will be their life and their death? Ill is the judgment that they make.Three meanings can be deduced. (1) The evil ones are not in God’s sight like the righteous ones; neither in life nor in death are they equal; in life the righteous are guided by God and receive His Grace, and after death His Mercy, while the others reject His Grace, and after death receive condemnation. (2) Neither are the two the same in this life and in the afterlife; if the wicked flourish here, they will be condemned in the Hereafter; if the good are in suffering or sorrow here, they will receive comfort and consolation in the Hereafter; (3) The real life of the righteous?for they have received spiritual life?is not like the nominal life of the wicked, which is really death; nor is the physical death of the righteous, which will bring them into eternal life, like the terrible death of the wicked which will bring them to eternal misery.