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Recitation: Sa'ad Al
Ghamdi
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Introduction and Summary
This Surah is is close in date
to the last: it is generally referred to the early Madinah period, though it may
possibly be of the late Makkan period.
It refers to the tremendous
convulsion and uprooting which will take place when the present order of the
world is dissolved and the new spiritual world of Justice and Truth takes its
place. The symbol used is that of an earthquake which will shake our present
material and phenomenal world to its very foundations. The mystic words in which
the earthquake is described are remarkable for both power and graphic aptness.
With the shaking all hidden mysteries will be brought to light.
C.279 (The running Commentary, in
Rhythmic Prose)
The Hour of Judgement
must needs be heralded
By a mighty
Convulsion: the Earth will give up
Her secrets and tell
her tale of all
Man's doings: men
will march in companies
And clearly see the
inwardness
Of all their Deeds:
not an atom of Good
Or Evil done, but
will be shown
In the final Account
of men convinced.
إِذَا
زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا
﴿١﴾
1. When
the Earth is shaken to her
(utmost)
convulsion,
C6235. To the
ordinary human observer a violent earthquake is a terrifying phenomenon, in its
suddenness, in its origin, and in its power to destroy and uproot the strongest
buildings and to bring up strange materials from the bowels of the earth.
The
Overwhelming Event
(Surah 88) which ushers in the Judgment will be a bigger
and more far-reaching convulsion than any earthquakes that we know. And yet the
incidents of earthquakes may give us some idea of that supreme world-shaking
Event.
وَأَخْرَجَتِ الْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَا
﴿٢﴾
2. And
the Earth throws up her burden
(from within),
C6236. An earthquake, if
accompanied by a volcanic eruption, throws up enormous boulders and lava from
beneath the crust of the earth. They are thrown up as if they were a burden to
the Earth personified. They may be all kinds of minerals, or treasures buried
for secrecy.
So in the great and final
Convulsion, the dead who had been buried and forgotten will rise; and will be
brought to the light of day, and justice will be done in the full glare of
absolute Truth.
وَقَالَ
الْإِنسَانُ مَا لَهَا
﴿٣﴾
3. And
man cries
(distressed):
'What is the matter with her?' --
C6237. The puzzled
agony suffered by the victims of violent earthquakes is as nothing compared to
the experience of the new and wonderful world which will then open out of the
gaze of man.
يَوْمَئِذٍ
تُحَدِّثُ أَخْبَارَهَا
﴿٤﴾
4. On
that Day will she declare her tidings:
بِأَنَّ
رَبَّكَ أَوْحَى لَهَا
﴿٥﴾
5. For
that thy Lord will have given her inspiration.
C6238. The
present order may be personified as the earth. It will pass away, but the Deeds
done therein, even the most secret, will be brought to the full light of day.
And this will be because Allah will give the Command, the inspiration or Word,
by which alone all events do proceed.
The "inspiration" is the Command or
direction conveyed by instruction breathed into the Earth personified: she is
directed to tell the whole story of what she knows.
Cf.
16:68, n. 2097.
يَوْمَئِذٍ
يَصْدُرُ النَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًا لِّيُرَوْا أَعْمَالَهُمْ
﴿٦﴾
6. On
that Day will men proceed in companies
sorted out,
to be shown the Deeds that they
(had done).
C6239. In this world good
and evil are mixed together. But then they will be sorted out, and each grade of
good and evil will be sorted out. So they will proceed in companies to receive
judgment. And they will be shown the exact import of everything that they had
thought, said, or done, in this life of probation, however they may have
concealed or misinterpreted it in this life.
Everything will be considered in
taking the account, and the account will convince the persons concerned
themselves.
فَمَن
يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ
﴿٧﴾
7. Then
shall anyone who has done
an atom's
weight
of good, see it!
C6240.
Dharrah: the weight of an atom, the
smallest living weight an ordinary man can think of.
Figuratively the subtlest form of
good and evil will then be brought to account, and it will be done openly and
convincingly: he "shall see it".
وَمَن
يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ
﴿٨﴾
8. And
anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it.
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