بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمـٰنِ الرَّحيمِ إِذَا الشَّمسُ كُوِّرَت

HEN THE SUN is shrouded in darkness,

وَإِذَا النُّجومُ انكَدَرَت

and when the stars lose their light,

وَإِذَا الجِبالُ سُيِّرَت

and when the mountains are made to vanish,¹

1. 1.  See 20:105 and the corresponding note 90; also note 63 on 14:48.

وَإِذَا العِشارُ عُطِّلَت

and when she-camels big with young, about to give birth, are left untended,

وَإِذَا الوُحوشُ حُشِرَت

and when all beasts are gathered together,²

1. 2.  I.e., when they crowd together in terror of the manifestation of the Last Hour, or as Mu'tazili commentators maintain - in order to be indemnified by God for man's cruelty to them (Razi). It is also said that the animals which were loved by human beings will live in the hereafter together with those who loved them (Zamakhshari). This interpretation is evidently based on 6:38 - "there is no beast that walks on earth and no bird that flies on its two wings which is not [God's] creature like yourselves" - followed almost immediately by the words, "Unto their Sustainer shall they [all] be gathered."

وَإِذَا البِحارُ سُجِّرَت

and when the seas boil over,

وَإِذَا النُّفوسُ زُوِّجَت

and when all human beings are coupled [with their deeds],³

1. 3.  I.e., when none will be able to divest himself of responsibility for his past deeds.

وَإِذَا المَوءودَةُ سُئِلَت

and when the girl-child that was buried alive is made to ask

بِأَيِّ ذَنبٍ قُتِلَت

for what crime she had been slain,⁴

1. 4.  The barbaric custom of burying female infants alive seems to have been fairly widespread in pre-Islamic Arabia, although perhaps not to the extent as has been commonly assumed. The motives were twofold: the fear that an increase of female offspring would result in economic burdens, as well as fear of the humiliation frequently caused by girls being captured by a hostile tribe and subsequently preferring their captors to their parents and brothers. Before Islam, one of the foremost opponents of this custom was Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, a cousin of Umar ibn al-Khattab and spiritually a precursor of Muhammad (cf. Bukhari, Fada'il Ashab an-Nabi on the authority of Abd Allah ibn Umar); he died shortly before Muhammad's call to prophethood (Fath al-Bari VII, 112). Another man, Sa'sa'ah ibn Najiyah at-Tamimi - grandfather of the poet Farazdaq - achieved equal fame as a saviour of infants thus condemned to death; he later embraced Islam. Ibn Khallikan (II, 197) mentions that Sa'sa'ah saved about thirty girls by paying ransom to their parents.

وَإِذَا الصُّحُفُ نُشِرَت

and when the scrolls [of men's deeds] are unfolded,

وَإِذَا السَّماءُ كُشِطَت

and when heaven is laid bare,

وَإِذَا الجَحيمُ سُعِّرَت

and when the blazing fire [of hell] is kindled bright,

وَإِذَا الجَنَّةُ أُزلِفَت

and when paradise is brought into view:

عَلِمَت نَفسٌ ما أَحضَرَت

[on that Day] every human being will come to know what he has prepared [for himself].

فَلا أُقسِمُ بِالخُنَّسِ

BUT NAY! I call to witness the revolving stars,

الجَوارِ الكُنَّسِ

the planets that run their course and set,

وَاللَّيلِ إِذا عَسعَسَ

and the night as it darkly falls,

وَالصُّبحِ إِذا تَنَفَّسَ

and the morn as it softly breathes:

إِنَّهُ لَقَولُ رَسولٍ كَريمٍ

behold, this [divine writ] is indeed the [inspired] word of a noble apostle,⁵

1. 5.  By "calling to witness" certain natural phenomena which are familiar to man because of their permanent recurrence, attention is drawn to the fact that what we call "laws of nature" are but the observable elements of God's plan of creation - a plan in which His revelations (referred to in this and the subsequent verses) play a decisive role: and so, by implication, the divine writ granted to Muhammad is as intrinsically "natural" as any other phenomenon, concrete or abstract, in the realm of God's creation.

ذي قُوَّةٍ عِندَ ذِي العَرشِ مَكينٍ

with strength endowed, secure with Him who in almightiness is enthroned⁶

1. 6.  Lit., "with Him of the throne of almightiness". It is to be noted that the Qur'anic term 'arsh - of which the above is the earliest occurrence in the order of revelation - invariably signifies God's absolute sovereignty and almightiness (cf. note 43 on 7:54).

مُطاعٍ ثَمَّ أَمينٍ

[the word] of one to be heeded, and worthy of trust!

وَما صاحِبُكُم بِمَجنونٍ

For, this fellow-man of yours is not a madman:⁷

1. 7.  See surah 68, note 3. The characterization of Muhammad as "this fellow-man of yours" is meant to stress his absolute humanness, and thus to counteract any possibility on the part of his followers to deify him. (See also note 150 on 7:184.)

وَلَقَد رَآهُ بِالأُفُقِ المُبينِ

he truly beheld [the angel - beheld] him on the clear horizon;⁸

1. 8.  This is evidently a reference to the Prophet's vision of the Angel Gabriel which ended the break in revelation (fatrat al-wahy) mentioned in the introductory note to surah 74. See also 53:5 ff. and the corresponding notes.

وَما هُوَ عَلَى الغَيبِ بِضَنينٍ

and he is not one to begrudge others the knowledge [of whatever has been revealed to him] out of that which is beyond the reach of human Perception.⁹

1. 9.  Sc., "and so he conveys this revelation to you".

وَما هُوَ بِقَولِ شَيطانٍ رَجيمٍ

Nor is this [message] the word of any satanic force accursed.¹⁰

1. 10. For my occasional rendering of shaytan as "satanic force", see first half of note 16 on 15:17.

فَأَينَ تَذهَبونَ

Whither, then, will you go?

إِن هُوَ إِلّا ذِكرٌ لِلعالَمينَ

This [message] is no less than a reminder to all mankind –

لِمَن شاءَ مِنكُم أَن يَستَقيمَ

to everyone of you who wills to walk a straight way.

وَما تَشاءونَ إِلّا أَن يَشاءَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ العالَمينَ

But you cannot will it unless God, the Sustainer of all the worlds, wills [to show you that way].¹¹

1. 11. I.e., "you can will it only because God has willed to show you the right way by means of the positive instincts which He has implanted in you, as well as through the revelations which He has bestowed on His prophets": implying that the choice of the right way is open to everyone who is willing to avail himself of God's universal guidance. (Cf. a similar passage in 76:29.)