Home > Surah 32 - The Prostration
The Quran Verse
Surah 32:21:
And We will surely let them taste the nearer punishment short of the greater punishment that perhaps they will return."
The Punishment of the Grave
Islamic tradition (Tafsir) identifies the "nearer punishment" as the Punishment of the Grave (Adhab al-Qabr).
Critics argue that this concept is entirely absent from the Torah and the New Testament. It is a 7th-century theological innovation, likely influenced by Zoroastrian and Manichaean beliefs about the "interrogation of the soul" immediately after death.
To the scholar, this reflects the shifting 7th-century views on the afterlife as Muhammad's followers began to die and the community required a theology for the "waiting period" before Judgment.