Surah Al-Waqi'ah, The Inevitable

Surah 56 · 96 verses · revealed at Mecca

Al-Waqi'ah opens at the moment the world ends and then does something unusual: it sorts everyone into three groups and follows each one.

There are those brought near, the foremost — the smaller number, described first and at length. There are the companions of the right hand. And there are the companions of the left. The surah moves between them, describing what each receives, and the contrast is drawn in physical terms throughout: shade and thornless trees and water poured out, set against scorching wind and black smoke.

Between these passages the surah turns to the listener and asks a series of questions about ordinary things. Who makes the seed grow once you have planted it? Who brings the water down from the cloud? Who made the tree that gives you fire? Each is left hanging. The argument is that a person who cannot account for the wheat in their own field is in no position to be confident about what happens after death.

It is a Meccan surah, and it has the sound of one — short verses, rhymed endings, a rhythm that carries when recited aloud even to someone with no Arabic.

Al-Waqi'ah is widely read for provision, and many people recite it nightly for that reason. The reports that recommend it for this purpose have been questioned by hadith specialists and a number classed them weak. The practice is old and sincere; the evidence behind that particular promise is debated, and readers can hold both facts at once.

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Surah Al-Waqi'ah, The Inevitable

Surah Al-Waqi'ah on this site

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