Topic: The Hour

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Important Words:

زلزلة (earthquake) is derived from زلزل. They say زلزل اللّٰه الارض i.e. God shook the earth. زلزله means, he frightened him. زلزل الابل means, he drove the camels harshly. زلزلة means, a shaking of the earth; an earthquake; a calamity; a terrible visitation; زلازل (plural) i.e. calamities, miseries, trials, afflictions (Aqrab). The word also means: a war or the effects of war. The last two World Wars were called زلزلة (an earthquake) because they shook the foundation of human society and brought about new political and social changes and also a revolutionary change in the beliefs, ideas and ideals of men. The word has been used in the Quran in the sense of a calamity (2:215) and also in the sense of war or the effects of war (33:11, 12).

الساعة (Hour) is derived from ساع. They say ساع الشیء i.e. the thing was lost, it degraded. ساعت الابل means, the camels went away grazing without a driver. ساعة means, an hour; a part of time; a while or a little while; a space; a period; an indefinite time; a watch. الساعة means, the present time; now; just now; this moment. It also means, difficulty, distress or affliction; distance; remoteness. الساعة (Hour) or القیامة is used in three senses: (a) death of a great and famous person. It is called القیامة الصغری or الساعةالصغری i.e. the small resurrection; (b) a national calamity or the doom that overtakes a whole people on account of their evil deeds. It is called الساعة الوسطی i.e. the Middle Hour; (c) the Day of Judgement. It is called القیامة الکبری or الساعة الکبری i.e. the Great Hour (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The word الساعة has been used in the Quran in the last two senses mentioned under "Important Words" above. The context shows that in the verse under comment it has been used in the second sense, i.e. in the sense of a national calamity that shakes the very foundation of a people. It may have particular reference to the impending doom of the Arabs when Mecca, the citadel of their political power, would fall and their political power and whole social system would break and crumble or it may refer to a terrible calamity that would overtake mankind in the form of a global war and would bring calamitous changes in its wake. The present verse read along with 2:213 lends further support to the inference that the words الساعة (the Hour) or یوم القیامة (the Day of Judgement) used in the Quran generally signify a great national calamity that overtakes a people.

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Important Words:

تذھل (forget) is derived from ذھل. They say ذھل عنه i.e. he forgot it or neglected it; he was or became unmindful of it; he neglected it intentionally or in consequence of his being diverted by something. ذھول is the neglecting of a thing, dismissing it from the mind; or the quitting of a thing with confusion or perplexity or alienation of mind such as arises from fear etc. or being diverted from one’s constant companion so as to forget him (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse has used three metaphors or similes to express the extreme severity of "the earthquake of the Hour," referred to in the preceding verse. Nothing is dearer to a mother than the babe to which she gives suck and there could be no terror more dreadful in its effects than the one that makes a woman cast down her burden and which drives men to frenzy and yet, the verse says, the suddenness and severity of the terror inspired by the dreadful event would be such that mothers would abandon the babes at their breasts and pregnant women would cast down their burdens and people would go mad with fright and like a drunken man would lose all control over their actions. The wording of the verse incidentally implies that the "Hour" referred to in the preceding verse is not the final Day of Judgement but, as stated in the preceding verse, is the destruction of the political power of Meccans in the form of the Fall of Mecca and other calamities that would overtake them, and the victory of Islam.

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Important Words:

انشق (is rent asunder) is derived from شق. They say شق الشیء i.e. he split, clave, tore or rent the thing. شق العصا means, he broke the staff, i.e. he separated himself from the community. An Arab would say, شق عصا المسلمین i.e. he created disunion and dissension among the Muslims. انشق القمر means, the moon was or became rent asunder; or according to some, the affair became manifest (Lane, Aqrab & Mufradat).

القمر (the moon). قمر الشیء means, the light of the thing became intense. أقمر اللیل means, the night became bright with the light of the moon. القمر means, the moon in its third night and after; the moon absolutely. أقمار العلم و شموسه means, the ulema or learned men of the people. القمران means, the sun and the moon (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

Whether or not "splitting of the moon" into two parts, observable by the naked eye, contravened any physical law of nature, it cannot be denied that the event lacks historical evidence which could at all be described as unimpeachable. At the same time no one can presume to have fathomed all divine mysteries or fully comprehended or encompassed all the secrets of nature. It is not possible to imagine that such an event, affecting a considerable area of the globe, should have remained unnoticed in the observatories of the world or that it should have remained unrecorded in books of history. But the incident having found a mention in such reliable collections of Hadith as Bukhari and Muslim and having been narrated successively in traditions of reliable authority and reported by such learned Companions of the Holy Prophet as Ibn Mas‘ud and Ibn ‘Abbas, does show that some natural phenomenon of unusual importance must have taken place in the time of the Holy Prophet. Some commentators of the Quran—Radi among them—have sought to solve the difficult problem by declaring the incident to be a lunar eclipse. Imam Ghazali and Shah Wali Allah also hold the view that the moon had not in fact been rent asunder, but that God had so contrived that it appeared to the beholders as such. However, taking into consideration the forceful language in which it has been mentioned in the Quran, the incident appears to be something more than a mere lunar eclipse. It indeed constituted a great miracle shown by the Prophet at the insistent demand of disbelievers (see Bukhari & Muslim). It seems to be a vision of the Holy Prophet in which the Companions of the Holy Prophet and some of the Quraish were made to share—just as the rod turning into a serpent was a vision of Moses in which the magicians were made to share. Alternatively, it may be that just as the striking of seawater by Moses with his rod coincided with the ebb of the tide and thus assumed the character of a miracle, because God alone knew when the sea would recede and it was He Who commanded Moses to strike the waters at the time of recession, similarly God may have commanded the Holy Prophet to show the miracle of the cleaving asunder of the moon at a time when a heavenly body was to take such a position in front of the moon that it caused the moon to appear to the beholders as split into two parts.

But the most plausible explanation, which is also possessed of very deep spiritual significance of this, one of the most outstanding miracles shown by the Holy Prophet, lies in the fact that the moon was the national emblem of the Arabs and the symbol of their political power, just as the sun at that time was the national ensign of the Persians. When Safiyyah, the daughter of Huyay bin Akhtab, a leader of the Jews of Khaibar, mentioned to her father that she had seen in a dream that the moon had fallen into her lap, he slapped her face saying that she wanted to marry the leader of the Arabs. After the fall of Khaibar Safiyyah’s dream was fulfilled when she was married to the Holy Prophet (Zurqani & Usdul-Ghabbah). Similarly, ‘A’ishah had seen a dream that three moons had fallen in her private apartment which saw its fulfilment when the Holy Prophet, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar were buried there one after the other (Mu’atta’, KitabuI-Jana’iz). According to this sense of the word و قمر the verse would signify that the hour of destruction of their political power with which the disbelieving Arabs had been threatened in 53:58 has already arrived. The word الساعه (Hour) in that case would refer to the Battle of Badr in which all the chiefs and leaders of the Quraish were killed and the foundations of the complete destruction of their power were laid. Thus the verse constituted a mighty prophecy which met with remarkable fulfilment, nearly eight or nine years after its announcement. Moreover, the Holy Prophet has been called "illuminating moon" (قمراً منیراً) in the Quran. In this sense of the word the verse would mean that after the Holy Prophet’s separation from the Quraish, the "Hour" of the destruction of their power would arrive, and it happened likewise. About a year after the Migration of the Holy Prophet to Medina, the Battle of Badr was fought which broke the Quraishite power.

Taking the expression انشق القمر in the sense, "the affair has become manifest," the verse would mean that the hour of the destruction of the Quraishite power has arrived and that now it would become manifest that the Prophet was a true Divine Messenger.

The word الساعة, besides the Battle of Badr, may apply to the Battle of the Ditch and the Fall of Mecca, as these three events combined to bring about complete and total annihilation of the power of pagan Arabs.