'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

Tafsir of Surah Al-Qiyamah

It is a Makkan surah by consensus of the scholars of interpretation. It has been narrated from Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: Whoever asks about the Day of Resurrection or wants to know the reality of its occurrence, let him read this surah. And Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba said: People say: The Resurrection, the Resurrection. However, the resurrection of a person is his death. It has also been narrated from Ibn Jubair that he attended the funeral of a man and said: As for this, his resurrection has taken place. A similar narration has been reported from Alqamah, and it was mentioned by Al-Thalabi.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And the resurrection of a man in his own case is not the comprehensive resurrection for all creation after resurrection, but Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, may Allah be pleased with him, seems to have said this to someone who distances himself from the resurrection of the Hereafter and thinks there is a long time between him and it. So he warned him with the resurrection of himself.

His saying, glorified and exalted is He:

﴿I do not swear by the Day of Resurrection﴾ ﴿And I do not swear by the reproaching soul﴾ ﴿Does man think that We will not gather his bones﴾ ﴿Yes, We are capable of restoring his fingertips﴾ ﴿But man desires to transgress before him﴾ ﴿He asks: When is the Day of Resurrection﴾ ﴿So when the sight is dazzled﴾ ﴿And the moon is eclipsed﴾ ﴿And the sun and the moon are gathered﴾ ﴿On that Day, man will say: Where is the escape﴾ ﴿No! There is no refuge﴾ ﴿To your Lord, on that Day, is the final destination﴾ ﴿Man will be informed on that Day of what he brought forward and what he left behind﴾ ﴿But indeed, man, over himself, will be a witness﴾ ﴿Even if he presents his excuses﴾

The majority of the seven reciters read: 'I do not swear by the Day of Resurrection,' while Ibn Kathir, Al-Hasan - with a difference from him - and Al-A'raj read: 'I swear by the Day of Resurrection and I swear.' As for the first reading, there has been disagreement in its interpretation. Ibn Jubair said: 'No' is an opening of speech akin to 'Indeed.' They recited in support of this:

'So no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you judge in that over which they dispute.'

And Abu Ali said: 'No' is an additional connective as it was added in His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿So that the people of the Scripture may not be aware﴾ [Al-Hadid: 29]. This is objected to by the fact that this is at the beginning of speech, and 'no' and 'what' and similar words are not added except in the continuation of speech. This is distinguished by the fact that the entire Qur'an is like one surah, and in the sense of connection, this is permissible. Al-Farra said: 'No' is a denial of the words of the disbelievers and a rebuke to them and a response to them. Then He, glorified and exalted is He, began - according to these three statements - His saying, glorified and exalted is He: 'I swear by the Day of Resurrection.' And Allah, glorified and exalted is He, swore by the Day of Resurrection to draw attention to its greatness and horror.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And I do not swear﴾, the saying regarding 'no' is as previously mentioned.

As for the second reading, it can bear one of two meanings: either the lam has entered upon the verb of the present tense, and the estimation is: I swear, so the noon does not follow; rather, it usually enters to differentiate between the verb of the present tense and the future verb. It is required in the future in most cases. Or the action may be purely for the future, so it is as if the more common view is that the noon should follow, either the light noon or the heavy noon. However, Sibawayh mentioned that the noon may drop when intending the future, and the lam suffices for it, just as the lam may drop and the noon suffices for it. This is in the saying of the poet:

And the slain of Murrah, he avenged, for indeed he has ceased, and the slain of them did not take revenge.

The intended meaning is: I will avenge.

As for His saying, the Exalted: "And I do not swear by the self-reproaching soul," it was said: "No" is negating, and indeed Allah, the Exalted, swore by the Day of Resurrection and denied that He swears by the self-reproaching soul. Al-Hasan explicitly stated this, and this view was adopted by some who read: "I do not swear," and this is a concern. In the second reading, it is more possible, and the majority of the interpreters are of the opinion that Allah, the Exalted, swore by both matters.

There is a disagreement regarding "the self-reproaching soul," what does it mean? Al-Hasan said: It is the reproaching one for its owner for neglecting obedience and similar matters, so it is, on this account, praiseworthy. That is why Allah, the Exalted, swore by it. Ibn Abbas and Qatadah said: It is the sinful, greedy one that reproaches its owner for what he has missed of the pursuits of this world and its pleasures, so it is, on this account, blameworthy. And on this interpretation, it is good to deny the oath by it. The self in the verse is a generic term for the souls of humans. Ibn Jubair said regarding its meaning: The oath by it is from the name of the genus because it reproaches for good and evil. It was said: The intended meaning is the soul of Adam, peace be upon him, because it has always reproached him for the action that brought him out of Paradise.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Every intermediate soul is neither tranquil nor commanding to evil; it is reproaching on both sides. Sometimes it reproaches for neglecting obedience, and sometimes it reproaches for missing what it desires. If it becomes tranquil, it becomes pure and clear.

And His saying, the Exalted: "Does man think" is a confirmation and reproach, and "man" is a generic name. These were statements made by the disbelievers of Quraysh, and the response is upon them. The majority of the people read: "We will gather his bones" with the noon and the accusative of the meme from the bones. Qatadah read it with the ta and raised the meme from the bones. The meaning of that is: on the Day of Resurrection and after the resurrection from the graves. Abu Amr read it by merging the 'ayn into the 'ayn.

Then Allah, the Most High, said: "Indeed," which is an affirmation of what has been denied. Its place is that it comes after the negation. The meaning is: Rather, We are capable of gathering it. "Capable" is set in the accusative case. Ibn Abi Abla read: "Capable" in the nominative case. Al-Qatabi said: "We will make his fingers equal." Its meaning is: We will perfect it uniformly. The fingers are the digits. It is as if the disbelievers, when they found it hard to believe in the gathering of bones after decay, were told: Indeed, they will be gathered, and most of them will be made equal, even though they are scattered and their parts are small, which are the bones of the fingertips and their joints. All of this is at the time of resurrection. Ibn Abbas and the majority of the interpreters said: "We will make his fingers equal" means: We will make them in his life as one piece or one bone like the hoof of a camel, with no separation in it. So the meaning is: We are capable now in this world of making it without separation, so that its benefit in his hand is reduced. So it is as if the estimation is: Indeed, we are worthy of gathering it, capable of removing its benefit from his hand. In this, there is a threat. The first saying is more in line with the coherence of the speech, but on this other saying, there is a majority of scholars.

His saying, the Most High: "Rather, man wants to transgress before him." Some of the interpreters said: The pronoun in "before him" refers back to man. The meaning of the verse is that man only wants his desires and sins to proceed in them forever, moving forward, riding his head, obeying his hope, and procrastinating with his repentance. This was said by Mujahid, Al-Hasan, Ikrimah, Ibn Jubair, Al-Dahhak, and Al-Suddi. Al-Suddi said: The meaning is to oppress according to his ability. Al-Dahhak said: The meaning is: He rides his head in seeking the world always. And His saying, the Most High: "To transgress" is understood as: so that he may transgress.

Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said what implies that the pronoun in "before him" refers back to "the Day of Resurrection." The meaning is that man is in the time of his existence before the Day of Resurrection and in front of him, while the Day of Resurrection is behind him. So he wants his desires to transgress in his denial of resurrection and other than that before the Day of Resurrection, and he does not know the extent of the harm he is in. An analogy of this is His saying, the Most High: "Man wants to transgress." The saying of Qays ibn Sa'd: (p-473)

I intended so that people may know that they are the trousers of Qays, and the delegations are witnesses.

And "rather" at the beginning of the verse is a shift from the meaning of abandonment, not from the meaning of negating the first statement. And "rather" may come to negate the statement that preceded it.

And the question of the disbeliever, "When is the Day of Resurrection?" is in the meaning of denial and mockery, as if you say to a storyteller about something you deny: When will this be? And "when" is a word meaning "when," and it clarifies its meaning of inquiry. It resembles the letters that imply meanings, and it should have been built on the sukoon, but the noon was opened due to the meeting of the two silent letters: the alif and it.

Abu Amr, Al-Hasan, Mujahid, Qatadah, Al-Jahdari, Asim, Al-A'mash, Abu Ja'far, and Shaiba read "Bariqa" with a broken 'ra', meaning: he appeared, split, and was confused. Nafi, Asim, and Abdullah ibn Abu Ishaq, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Nasr ibn Asim read "Baraka" with a opened 'ra', meaning: it shone and became lightning at the time of death. The meaning is close in both readings. Abu Ubaidah said: Baraka with the opening means: split. Mujahid said: this is at the time of death. Al-Hasan said: this is on the Day of Resurrection.

The majority of the people read: "And the moon was eclipsed" as if it is a subject. Abu Haywah read: "And it was eclipsed" with a damma on the 'kha' and a kasra on the 'seen', "the moon" being the object of what is called its subject. It is said: the moon was eclipsed and Allah eclipsed it, and likewise the sun. Abu Ubaidah and a group of linguists said: the eclipse and the obscuration are of the same meaning. Ibn Abu Uways said: the obscuration is the disappearance of some light, and the eclipse is the disappearance of all of it. Urwah and Sufyan narrated that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Do not say: the sun was obscured, but say: it was eclipsed." And His saying, the Most High: "And the sun and the moon were gathered" indicates that the masculine form predominated over the feminine form. It was said: this is because the femininity of the sun is not real. It was said: the intended meaning is: He gathered between the sun and the moon. Ibn Abu Abla read likewise, and for that reason he dropped the sign of femininity. In the mushaf of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, it is written: "And He gathered between the sun and the moon." The interpreters differed in the meaning of the gathering between them. Ata ibn Yasir said: they will be gathered and thrown into the fire. It was said: into the sea, so it becomes the great fire of Allah. It was said: the two lights will be gathered and taken away.

The majority of the people read: "Where is the escape?" with an opened 'mim' and 'fa' in the source, meaning: where is the fleeing? Ibn Abbas, Al-Hasan, Ikrimah, Ayoub Al-Sakhtiyani, Kulthum ibn Iyad, Mujahid, Yahya ibn Yamur, Hamad ibn Salamah, Abu Raja, Isa, and Ibn Abu Ishaq read: "Where is the escape?" with an opened 'mim' and a broken 'fa', meaning: where is the place of fleeing? Al-Zuhri read: "Where is the escape?" with a broken 'mim' and an opened 'fa', meaning: where is the good escape?

And "No" is a rebuke said to a person on that day, then he declares that he has no burden, meaning: no refuge or helper. The interpreters expressed "the burden" as the mountain. Matarif ibn Al-Shakheer and others said: "And it was the burden of the fleeing Arabs in their lands, and for that reason it was used." The truth is that it is the refuge, whether a mountain, fortress, weapon, man, or otherwise. And His saying, the Most High: "To your Lord is the place of rest on that day" means: to the judgment of your Lord and similar matters of decree. "The place of rest" is raised by the beginning, and its news is in the implied meaning that relates to the preceding genitive. The estimation of the speech is: the place of rest is established or exists to your Lord on that day, and the place of rest is the location of stability.

And His saying, exalted is He: "By what he has sent before and delayed" is a division that encompasses every action. That is, He knows everything that he has done, and he finds it accounted for. Ibn Abbas and Ibn Mas'ud said: The meaning is by what he has sent before in his life and what he has delayed from a year in which he will act afterward. Ibn Abbas also said: By what he has sent before of sins and what he has delayed of good deeds. Zayd ibn Aslam said: By what he has sent before of his wealth for himself and what he has delayed of it for the inheritor.

And His saying, exalted is He: "But" is a negation meaning abandonment, not meaning the invalidation of the first statement. "Insight" may be a report about "the human" and the feminine pronoun has attached to it as it attached to "mark" and "genealogist." The meaning is that he has in himself, in his mind, and in his nature a proof and a clear witness against himself. Even if he excuses his vile actions, he knows their vileness. Likewise, if he hides behind his veils and conceals himself with his actions - according to the two interpretations regarding excuses - it is possible that "insight" is an initiation and its report is in His saying, exalted is He: "against himself," and the pronoun is for the feminine. It is intended by "insight" his limbs, and the guarding angels. This is the interpretation of Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him and his father. And "the excuses" here, the majority said: They are the excuses, the plural of "excuse." Al-Suddi and Al-Dahhak said: They are the veils in the language of Yemen, they say for the covering, "the excuse." Al-Hasan said: The meaning is: But the human is a burden and a trial upon himself, as if he has gone to the insight which is the way of blood and the call for revenge. And in this, there is consideration.