Wama yastawee alahyao wala alamwatu inna Allaha yusmiAAu man yashao wama anta bimusmiAAin man fee alquboori
English
Ahmed Ali
Equal are not the living and the dead. Verily God makes those He will to listen; but you cannot make those hear who are in their graves.
22
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (nor are the living equal with the dead) nor are the believers equal with the disbelievers in relation to obedience and honour. (lo! allah maketh whom he will) whoever deserves it (to hear) to understand. (thou canst not reach) you cannot make understand (those who are in the graves) those who are as if dead and buried in the graves.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : nor are the living equal to the dead, the believers and the disbelievers [respectively] (the addition of the particle lā, ‘nor’, in all three instances is for emphasis). indeed god makes to hear whomever he will, to be guided, so that such [a person] then responds to him by embracing faith. but you cannot make those who are in the graves to hear, namely, the disbelievers — whom he has likened to the dead — [to hear] and so respond.
