082- AL-INFITAR
THE CLEAVING ASUNDER
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
# When the sky is cleft asunder, # and when the stars are dispersed, # when the seas are burst forth, # and when graves are turned inside out, # then shall each soul know what it has sent forth and what it has left behind. # O mankind! What has deluded you with regard to your noble Lord, # Who created you, then fashioned you, then proportioned you, # assembling you in whatever form He willed? # Nay! But you deny religion. # And yet truly over you there are guardians, # noble, writing, # knowing what you do. # Truly the pious shall be in bliss; # and truly the profligate shall be in Hellfire, # burning therein on the Day of Judgment. # And they will not be absent from it. # And what will apprise thee of the Day of Judgment? # Then what will apprise thee of the Day of Judgment? # A day when no soul will avail another soul in any way, and the Command that Day is with God.
Commentary
# When the sky is cleft asunder,
# and when the stars are dispersed,
1–2 The “cleaving” or splitting of the sky (see also 25:25; 55:37; 84:1), when it is opened as if it were gates (78:19) is considered one of the marks of the Day of Judgment (cf. 73:18). When the sky is cleaved, the stars will be blotted out (77:8) and fade away (81:2).
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# when the seas are burst forth,
# and when graves are turned inside out,
3–4 These verses move from signs of the Hour in the celestial realm to those on the earth. The seas . . . burst forth, breaking the barrier which they transgress not (55:20), mixing with one another and becoming one (Q, R, Ṭ), and swell over (81:6; cf. 52:6), covering the earth or parts of it when the earth quakes. For the significance of the two seas, one sweet, satisfying, the other salty, bitter (25:53), see 25:53c; 35:12c; 55:19–20c. The seas swell because of a great earthquake that also causes the earth to overturn and cast out all human beings and jinn (see 99:1–2), at which point they emerge from the graves as if they were scattered locusts (54:7).
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# then shall each soul know what it has sent forth and what it has left behind.
5 Cf. 75:13. According to some, what it has sent forth indicates the good deeds done in obedience to God and observance of His Commands, and what it has left behind indicates those deeds that, although commanded, were left undone (Ṭ). Others say this verse indicates all the good and evil that individuals have sent forth, or done, in accord with which they will be judged, and all the good and evil that was left behind, that they could have done during this life, but did not (Ṭ). Al-Ṭabarī, however, maintains that a deed is not something that can be left behind unless it has actually been performed, so that what it has left behind indicates “a good or evil practice that one has established such that if another performs it he [the one who established it] has the same reward as the one who performed it or the same burden” (Ṭ).
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# O mankind! What has deluded you with regard to your noble Lord,
6 Two things are said to delude human beings, the life of this world and Satan, the Deluder; see 31:33 and 35:5: So let not the life of this world delude you; nor let the Deluder delude you concerning God.
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# Who created you, then fashioned you, then proportioned you,
7 Fashioned you refers to the manner in which God has made all human parts and faculties sound and functional (R). Proportioned you translates ʿaddalaka, which could also be read ʿadalaka, meaning “turned you,” implying that God turns people in any direction He wills. Both readings are viable, though the former is grammatically more appropriate when v. 8 is read as a continuation of v. 7 (R, Ṭ).
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# assembling you in whatever form He willed?
8 Some take this verse to indicate the manner in which God chooses a particular human form for each individual (Q, R, Ṭ). Others take this to mean that God can assemble human beings in the form of other animals (Q, R, Ṭ), presumably as punishment, as implied in 2:65: Be you apes, outcast. Vv. 7–8 can also be taken to imply the inner qualities rather than the outer form, thus referring to states of faith or disobedience (Qu, R) or states of felicity (saʿādah) or wretchedness (shaqāwah), which are commonly understood as referring to states of damnation and salvation, respectively, as in 11:105: On the Day it comes, no soul shall speak, save by His Leave. Among them shall be the wretched and the felicitous.
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# Nay! But you deny religion.
9 Religion, translating dīn, could also be rendered “judgment,” as in vv. 15, 17, and 18; for the broader meaning of dīn, see the essay “The Quranic View of Sacred History and Other Religions.”
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# And yet truly over you there are guardians,
10 Cf. 86:4. Guardians refers to angels who preserve the record of all the deeds of human beings; see 43:80c; 50:17–18c. In accordance with 50:17, most maintain that each individual has two angels solely responsible for recording the deeds that he or she performs in this life.
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# noble, writing,
# knowing what you do.
11–12 The record the angels write is said to be the book of deeds that is given to each individual on the Day of Judgment; see 18:49c.
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# Truly the pious shall be in bliss;
13 See commentary on the identical verse, 83:22. Regarding the meaning of the pious (al-abrār) and piety (birr), see 2:44c; 76:5–6c.
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# and truly the profligate shall be in Hellfire,
# burning therein on the Day of Judgment.
14–15 Profligate translates fujjār (sing. fājir), which could also be rendered “libertine.” It derives from the verb fajara, meaning, “to break open,” and implying that those who do evil break open what should be left closed.
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# And they will not be absent from it.
16 Whereas previously the profligate had been oblivious, now they will see the reality of how they have lived (see 50:22), and they will not be able to escape its consequences.
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# And what will apprise thee of the Day of Judgment?
# Then what will apprise thee of the Day of Judgment?
17–18 These verses can be taken as an address directly to the Prophet, to all human beings, or to the disbelievers. Some propose that v. 17 is addressed to the pious and v. 18 to the profligate (R).
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# A day when no soul will avail another soul in any way, and the Command that Day is with God.
19 The Day of Judgment is the Day when no friend will avail a friend in any way (44:41), and a day on which no parent will avail his child aught and no child will avail his parent aught (31:33), meaning that no individual will have recourse to anything beyond the record of his own actions and intentions, or the state of his own soul; see also 2:48, 123. And the Command that Day is with God indicates that all intermediaries are then stripped of their power, and God alone is the direct actor. It also points to the fact that all things perish, save His Face (28:88), as God abides, while all else fades.
In another variant, this verse can be read as a continuation of the previous verse, in which case the question ends after the word “way.”
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