100- AL-ADIYAT
THE CHARGERS
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
# By the panting chargers, # by the strikers of sparks, # by the raiders at dawn, # raising thereby a trail of dust, # penetrating to the center altogether, # truly man is ungrateful to his Lord, # and truly he is a witness to that, # and truly he is fierce in his love for good things. # Does he not know that when what lies within graves is turned inside out, # and what lies within breasts is made known, # truly on that Day their Lord shall be aware of them!
Commentary
# By the panting chargers,
1–5 According to al-Bayḍāwī, the oaths in these verses can also be seen as an allusion to “charging souls” who, when something of the light of holiness appears unto them, convey it to others, strike the sparks of spiritual knowledge (al-maʿārif), raid caprice and bad habits, raise desire for God, and finally penetrate altogether into the midst of those who are in ʿIlliyyūn, considered by some to be the highest Garden of Paradise (see 83:18–19). 1 The various occasions of revelation reported imply that this verse refers to either horses in battle or camels on the pilgrimage (Bḍ), but it can be seen as applying to both, as each is understood as fulfilling a function considered worthy of being sworn upon by God.
#by the strikers of sparks,
2 The striking of hooves on rocks causes sparks to fly.
# by the raiders at dawn, # raising thereby a trail of dust,
3–4 The camels that rush from Mashʿar to Minā do so at dawn on the Day of Sacrifice, the last day of the ḥajj (see 2:196–200).
#penetrating to the center altogether,
5 This verse alludes to the manner in which the horses penetrated to the center of the enemy troops (Bḍ) or to the rush of camels from Mashʿar to Minā.
# truly man is ungrateful to his Lord,
6 This verse constitutes the response to the oaths in the first five verses. Kanūd, here translated ungrateful, indicates a land where nothing grows or a person who is petty and miserly.
# and truly he is a witness to that,
7 He can be read as a reference to either God or human beings. God as Witness is attested in many other verses (3:98; 4:33; 5:117; 22:17; 33:55; 58:6; 85:9). As to the latter, it can be taken to imply either that human beings are aware of their sins in this life or that they will be aware of them on the Day of Judgment, as in 67:11: Thus do they admit their sin (see also 35:37; 42:35). Other verses attest that on the Day of Judgment people will be made to testify against themselves (6:30; 24:24; 36:65; 41:20); see 36:65c.
# and truly he is fierce in his love for good things.
8 Most commentators equate good things with wealth, but the term can also be seen as a more general reference to all things of this world for which human beings have excessive love at the expense of loving God and the blessings of the Hereafter, as in 3:14: Made to seem fair unto mankind is the love of passions, among them women, children, hoarded heaps of gold and silver, horses of mark, cattle, and tillage. Those are the enjoyment of the life of this world. And God, with Him is the beautiful return.
# Does he not know that when what lies within graves is turned inside out,
9 All human beings will be resurrected (see also 82:3–4; 84:3–4; 99:2c). The image of graves being turned inside out is another example of apocalyptic inversion (see, e.g., 81:1–6; 82:1–4) that evokes the idea of all one’s past being resurrected for judgment (cf. 35:22; 60:13).
# and what lies within breasts is made known,
# truly on that Day their Lord shall be aware of them!
10–11 On the Day of Resurrection the good will be clearly distinguished from the bad (Sh), and the true nature of all actions and hearts will be known. The Day of Judgment is thus referred to in 86:9 as the Day when secrets are tested, for on this day everyone’s true nature will become known. As dozens of verses attest, God is at all times aware of all that human beings do (e.g., 2:134, 221; 3:153, 180; 17:30; 24:30; 27:88; 57:11) and of what lies within breasts (cf. 3:119, 154; 5:7; 8:43; 11:5; 31:23; 35:38; 39:7; 42:24; 57:6; 64:4; 67:13). The specific reference to God’s Awareness on the Day of Judgment in this verse can thus be understood as an indication that on this day human beings will themselves become cognizant of the fact of God’s ever present awareness and will no longer be able to deceive themselves or deny the intentions that lay behind their actions. In other verses, the disbelievers even bear witness that they deserve Hellfire (see 39:71; 67:11).
(Source: The study Quran, by Sayyed Hossein Nasr and 4 others)
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