(ENGLISH) COMMENTARY BY MUHAMMED ESED( BY MUHAMMED ESED ) |
99 - AL-ZALZALAH |
In the name of god, the most gracious, The dispenser of grace: (1)
1 - According to most of the authorities, this invocation (which occurs at the beginning of every surah with the exception of surah 9) constitutes an integral part of "The Opening" and is, therefore, numbered as verse I. In all other instances, the invocation "in the name of God" precedes the surah as such, and is not counted among its verses. - Both the divine epithets rahman and rahrm are derived from the noun rahmah, which signifies "mercy", "compassion", "loving tenderness" and, more comprehensively, "grace". From the very earliest times, Islamic scholars have endeavoured to define the exact shades of meaning which differentiate the two terms. The best and simplest of these explanations is undoubtedly the one advanced by Ibn al-Qayyim (as quoted in Mandr I, 48): the term rahman circumscribes the quality of abounding grace inherent in, and inseparable from, the concept of God's Being, whereas rahrm expresses the manifestation of that grace in, and its effect upon, His creation-in other words, an aspect of His activity. |
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1. | WHEN THE EARTH quakes with her [last] mighty quaking, |
2. | and [when] the earth yields up her burdens, (1)
1 - I.e., all that was hitherto hidden in it, including the bodies- or the remnants - of the dead. |
3. | and man cries out, "What has happened to her?" - |
4. | on that Day will she recount all her tidings, |
5. | as thy Sustainer will have inspired her to do! (2)
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. | On that Day will all men come forward, cut off from one another, (3) to be shown their [past] deeds.
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. | And so, he who shall have done an atom's weight of good, shall behold it; |
8. | and he who shall have done an atom's weight of evil, shall behold it. |