Surah An-Nazi'at, Those Who Pull Out

Surah 79 · 46 verses · revealed at Mecca

An-Nazi'at opens with five oaths whose meaning commentators have never fully agreed on, generally understood as describing angels at the taking of souls.

Its centre is Moses and Pharaoh, told in about fifteen short verses. Moses is sent to a man who had gone beyond all bounds and told to ask him whether he would purify himself. Pharaoh gathers his people and proclaims that he is their highest lord. The surah gives that claim one line and then says God seized him as an example for this life and the next.

What follows is the surah's argument, put as a question to the listener. Are you harder to create, or the sky He built, raising its canopy and setting it in order, darkening its night and bringing out its morning brightness. And the earth after that spread out, its water and its pasture brought from it, and the mountains set firm — a provision for you and for your livestock.

Near the end the Prophet is asked about the hour and told that he is not the one to say when it is, and that his task is only to warn whoever fears it.

Its final image is of that day seeming, when it comes, as though they had stayed in the world no longer than an evening or a single morning.

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