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THE NINETY-NINTH SŪRAH Az-Zalzalah (The Earthquake) Period Uncertain

MOST PROBABLY revealed in the early part of the Medina period (Itqān), although some authorities regard it as a Meccan revelation.

1

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمـٰنِ الرَّحيمِ إِذا زُلزِلَتِ الأَرضُ زِلزالَها

WHEN THE EARTH quakes with her [last] mighty quaking,

2

وَأَخرَجَتِ الأَرضُ أَثقالَها

and [when] the earth yields up her burdens,1

  1. 1.  I.e., all that was hitherto hidden in it, including the bodies- or the remnants - of the dead.
3

وَقالَ الإِنسانُ ما لَها

and man cries out, What has happened to her? -

4

يَومَئِذٍ تُحَدِّثُ أَخبارَها

on that Day will she recount all her tidings,

5

بِأَنَّ رَبَّكَ أَوحىٰ لَها

as thy Sustainer will have inspired her to do!2

  1. 2.  I.e., on the Day of Judgment the earth will bear witness, as it were, to all that has ever been done by man: an explanation given by the Prophet, according to a Tradition on the authority of Abu Hurayrah (quoted by Ibn Hanbal and Tirmidhi).
6

يَومَئِذٍ يَصدُرُ النّاسُ أَشتاتًا لِيُرَوا أَعمالَهُم

On that Day will all men come forward, cut off from one another,3 to be shown their [past] deeds.

  1. 3.  Lit., ''as separate entities" (ashtatan). Cf. 6:94 - "And now, indeed, you have come unto Us in a lonely state, even as We created you in the first instance": thus stressing the individual, untransferable responsibility of every human being.
7

فَمَن يَعمَل مِثقالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيرًا يَرَهُ

And so, he who shall have done an atom's weight of good, shall behold it;

8

وَمَن يَعمَل مِثقالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

and he who shall have done an atom's weight of evil, shall behold it.

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