القيامة

See 1:1.

Commentary:

For the nature, significance and philosophy of Quranic oaths see detailed notes on 91:2 and 37:2. One object of oaths, however, is to lay emphasis on the importance of the subject about which an oath is taken.

لا (nay) is used in different senses. Here it may signify, "it is not like what they think." Sometimes, it is used as an answer to some objection or in repudiation of what is said before. In this and the next verse it is used to refute the disbelievers’ assertion made in v. 4, about the impossibility of the Resurrection and also to emphasize the importance of the oath.

القیامة (the Resurrection) signifying a great and calamitous occurrence, may refer to three events: (a) The death of a person is called القیامة الصغریٰ i.e. the small resurrection. It is to this resurrection that reference is made in the famous hadith, viz. من مات فقد قامت قیامته i.e. he who dies, his resurrection has indeed taken place. (b) The moral death of a whole people or nation. This is called القامة الوسطی i.e. the Middle Resurrection. (c) The Final Resurrection. The word قیامة (resurrection) has been used in the Quran in all these three senses.

Commentary:

The Quran has mentioned three stages of development of the human soul. The first stage is called النفس الامارة i.e. the uncontrollable spirit or the spirit prone to evil, when the animal in man is predominant.

The second stage is that of النفس اللوامة i.e. the self-accusing spirit, when man begins to be conscious of evil, that is, when his awakened conscience upbraids him for doing bad deeds and restrains his passions and appetites. In moments of weakness of the flesh, in this stage, he may falter or fall, but will not perish, every failure bringing with it a fresh reproach and repentance. The human in man gets the upper hand in him. It is the beginning of his spiritual resurrection. النفس اللوامةhas been cited here in evidence of the Final Resurrection. If man has no responsibility, if he has not to account for his deeds in an afterlife, why this pricking of conscience at the doing of an evil deed?

The highest stage of development of the human soul, however, is that of النفس المطمئنة i.e. the spirit at rest. At this stage the human soul becomes practically immune to failure or faltering and is at peace with its Creator.

23:83; 37:54; 56:48; 79:12.

Commentary:

The objection of disbelievers, viz. when they are dead and reduced to bones and dust how would they be given a new life, is repeatedly mentioned and effectively answered in the Quran. See 17:50-52 and 36:78-80.

17:100; 36:78-80.

Important Words:

بنان (fingertips) is the plural of بنانة which is derived from بن which means, he remained or stayed in a place. بنان means, fingers; ends or extremities thereof; fingertips; toes; all the limbs or members of the body; any part or all the limbs; arms or hands or legs or feet (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

At another place in the Quran (36:78-80), the objection of disbelievers about life after death has been answered by stating that the Almighty Creator Who has created man from a mere sperm drop has the power to restore him to life after he is dead, but in the present verse the restoration of his fingertips has been adduced as an argument to refute the same objection. In fact, the word بنان represents man’s power and strength, as by means of his hand he grasps an object and defends himself. In fact man’s hands, i.e. his fingers, are the most important members of his body. The word بنان as given under Important Words may stand for the whole human body. Thus the verse signifies that God has the power to restore all the powers of man, or even of a whole people when, to all intents and purposes, they are dead and defunct.

78:2; 79:43.

Commentary:

The question seems to have been asked in derision or doubt. In fact, doubt about the Hereafter gives rise to a mocking attitude on the disbelievers’ part.

Important Words:

برق (is dazzled) means, he feared so that he was astonished or amazed or stupefied at seeing the gleam of lightning; he was frightened, or he became perplexed or unable to see his right course. برق بصرہ means, his eye became dazzled or it became weak. برقت قدماہ means, his feet became weak (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The metaphor "when the eye is dazzled," signifies, "when the opponents of truth are completely confused and baffled".

Commentary:

"Moon" being a symbol of the political power of the Arabs, the verse may mean: when the power of the Arabs will break and their glory will depart. Or the darkening of the moon may mean the darkening of both the sun and the moon, as the moon borrows its light from the sun, so that when the moon is darkened it means that the sun also has become dark.

Commentary:

The expression, "the sun and the moon are brought together" may signify that the whole solar system will be completely disrupted. Or the words may signify the destruction of the political power of the Arabs and of the Iranian dynasty, the moon being the symbol of the political power of the former and the sun that of the latter. Or the reference may be to the lunar and solar eclipses—a highly unusual phenomenon, which, according to a hadith was to occur in the time of the Promised Mahdi. The hadith is to the following effect: ان لمھدینا اٰیتین لم تکونا منذ خلق السموات و الارض الخ i.e. For our Mahdi there are two signs which have never been witnessed since the time when the heavens and the earth were created, viz. that the moon will be eclipsed on the first night and the sun on the second day in the month of Ramadan(Baihaqi). This meant that the day of the final triumph of Islam and that of the defeat and destruction of the forces of evil will dawn with the Mahdi’s appearance in the world. Strangely enough, both the sun and the moon were eclipsed in the month of Ramadan in 1894 after Ahmad, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement had made the claim that he was the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.

80:35.

Important Words:

وزر (refuge) is derived from أوزر. They say أوزر الشیء i.e. he protected, guarded the thing; concealed it or took it away. أوزر الرجل means, he gave asylum to the man. وزر (wazarun) means, place of refuge; a high mountain; a mountain where one takes refuge (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The words "that which he has sent forward and has left behind," may mean, the evil deeds which man did but which he should not have done and the good deeds which he should have done but he failed to do, i.e. his sins of omission and commission.

Commentary:

Bukhari reports that in the beginning when a certain portion of the Quran was revealed to the Holy Prophet, in his anxiety lest he should forget it, he would start hurriedly repeating it. It is this practice that the Prophet was enjoined in this verse to give up, because, as stated in the following three verses, God had taken upon Himself not only to safeguard the text of the Quran from being tampered with but also to see that it was collected in the form of an immaculately arranged Book (see General Introduction) and that its Message was conveyed and explained to the whole world (15:10). Or the meaning may be that, because the preceding verses referred to a day of reckoning for disbelievers, the Holy Prophet was naturally anxious that the revelation bearing upon the promised punishment should come soon. He is here told that he need have no anxiety on that score, as it was God’s own responsibility, when a revelation should descend and what form the punishment should take, and that the Quran should be collected, read and explained to the world. It may be convenient to set out here three quotations: "There is otherwise every security, internal and external, that we possess the text (of the Quran) which Muhammad himself gave forth and used" (Muir). "Efforts of European scholars to prove the existence of later interpolations in the Quran have failed" (Enc. Brit.). "The Quran is perhaps the most read book in the world. Certainly it is the most often memorized, and possibly it exerts the greatest influence on those who read it" (The Religions of Man).

Besides the meaning given in the text, the verse has also been interpreted as follows: "It is Our responsibility that We should explain the Quranic revelation through your tongue" (Ruhul-Ma‘ani). This speaks volumes for the inviolability of the Holy Prophet’s Sunnah and its indispensability as a safe and sure guide, next only to the Quran itself. For a detailed exposition, however, of this and the preceding verse see General Introduction and 15:10.

15:10.

See previous note 4467.