078
Muhammad Asad
AN-NABA (THE TIDING)
THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH
SURAH
Total Verses: 40
Introduction
THE THEME of this
undoubtedly late Meccan surah (Suyuti) is the continuation of human life
after bodily death, i.e., resurrection and God's ultimate judgment. Its
conventional title is derived from the word naba appearing in the second
verse.
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) ABOUT WHAT do they [most often] ask
one another?
(2) About the awesome tiding [of
resurrection],
(3) on which they [so utterly] disagree.
1
(4) Nay, but in time they will come to
understand [it]!
(5) And once again: 2 Nay,
but in time they will come to understand!
(6) HAVE WE NOT made the earth a
resting-place [for you],
(7) and the mountains [its] pegs? 3
(8) And We have created you in pairs;
4
(9) and We have made your sleep [a
symbol of] death 5
(10) and made the night [its] cloak
(11) and made the day [a symbol of]
life. 6
(12) And We have built above you seven
firmaments, 7
(13) and have placed [therein the sun,]
a lamp full of blazing splendour.
(14) And from the wind-driven clouds We
send down waters pouring in abundance,
(15) so that We might bring forth
thereby grain, and herbs,
(16) and gardens dense with follage.
8
(17) VERILY, the Day of Distinction
[between the true and the false] 9 has indeed its appointed time:
(18) the Day when the trumpet [of
resurrection] is sounded and you all come forward in multitudes;
(19) and when the skies are opened and
become [as wide-flung] gates; 10
(20) and when the mountains are made to
vanish as if they had been a mirage. 11
(21) [On that Day,] verily, hell will
lie in wait [for those who deny the truth] –
(22) a goal for all who are wont to
transgress the bounds of what is right!
(23) In it shall they remain for a long
time. 12
(24) Neither coolness shall they taste
therein nor any [thirst-quenching] drink –
(25) only burning despair and ice-cold
darkness: 13
(26) a meet requital [for their sins]!
(27) Behold, they were not expecting to
be called to account,
(28) having given the lie to Our
messages one and all:
(29) but We have placed on record every
single thing [of what they did].
(30) [And so We shall say:] "Taste,
then, [the fruit of your evil doings,] for now We shall bestow on you nothing
but more and more suffering!" 14
(31) [But,] verily for the God-conscious
there is supreme fulfilment in store: 15
(32) luxuriant gardens and vinyards,
(33) and splendid companions well
matched, 16
(34) and a cup [of happiness]
overflowing.
(35) No empty talk will they hear in
that [paradise], nor any lie.
(36) [All this will be] a reward from
thy Sustainer, a gift in accordance with [His Own] reckoning 17 –
(37) [a reward from] the Sustainer of
the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, the Most Gracious!
[And] none shall have it in their power to raise their voices unto Him
(38) on the Day when all [human] souls
18
and all the angels will stand up in ranks: none will speak but he to whom the
Most Gracious will have given leave; and [everyone] will say [only] what is
right. 19
(39) That will be the Day of Ultimate
Truth: 20 whoever wills, then, let him take the path that leads towards
his Sustainer!
(40) Verily, We have warned you of
suffering near at hand - [suffering] on the Day when man shall [clearly] see
what his hands have sent ahead, and when he who has denied the truth shall say,
"Oh, would that I were mere dust... !" 21
1 The
question which preoccupies man above all others - the question as to whether
there is life after death - has been variously answered throughout the ages. It
is, of course, impossible to describe the innumerable variations of those
answers; nevertheless, a few main lines of thought are clearly discernible, and
their mention may be useful for a better understanding of the Qur'anic treatment
of this problem. Some people - probably a minority - seem to be convinced that
bodily death amounts to total and irreversible extinction, and that, therefore,
all talk about a hereafter but an outcome of wishful thinking. Others are of
the opinion that after individual death the human "life-essence"
returns to the supposed source of its origin - conceived as the "universal
soul" - and merges with it entirely. Some believe in a successive
transmigration of the individual soul, at the moment of death, into another
body, human or animal, but without a continuation of individual consciousness.
Others, again, think that only the soul, and not the entire human
"personality", continues to live after death - that is, in a purely
spiritual, disembodied form. And, lastly, some believe in an undiminished
survival of the individual personality and consciousness, and regard death and
resurrection as the twin stages of a positive act of re-creation of the entire
human personality, in whatever form this may necessarily involve: and this is
the Qur'anic view of the life to come.
2 For this rendering of the
particle thumma, see surah 6, note 31.
3 See
4 I.e., "with the same
creative power We have created the miraculous polarity of the two sexes in you
and in other animated beings". The phenomenon of polarity, evident
throughout the universe (see 36:36 and the corresponding note 18), is further
illustrated in verses 9-11.
5 Thus Zamakhshari, stressing the
primary significance of subat as "cutting-off" (qat), i.e.,
"death"; also the famous second-century philologist Abu Ubaydah
Ma’mar ibn al-Muthanna, who (as quoted by Razi) explains the above Qur'anic
phrase as an "analogue (shibh) of death".
6 According to Zamakhshari, the
term ma’ash ("that whereby one lives") is here synonymous with
"life". In the polarity of sleep (or "death") and
wakefulness (or "life") we see the allusion to bodily death and
subsequent resurrection already touched upon in 6:60.
7 Lit., "seven firm ones",
indicating the multiplicity of cosmic systems (see surah 2, note 20).
8 Implying that the overwhelming
evidence of purpose and plan in all observable nature points to the existence
of a conscious Creator who has "not created [anything of] this without
meaning and purpose" (3:191), and who - as is stressed in the sequence –
will one day pronounce His judgment on every human being's willingness or
unwillingness to live up to the standards of morality made clear to him through
inborn instinct as well as through divine revelation.
9 See note 6 on 78:13. This
passage connects with verses 4-5.
10 10 Allegorically, "its
mysteries will be opened to man's understanding" - thus further amplifying
the concept of "the Day of Distinction between the true and the
false".
11 See note 90 on 20:105-107, as
well as note 63 on 14:48.
12 I.e., not forever, since the
term huqb or hiqbah (of which ahqab is the plural) denotes
no more than "a period of time" or "a long time" (Jawhari)
- according to some authorities, "eigghty years", according to others,
"a year" or simply "years" (Asas, Qamus, Lisan al-Arab, etc.).
But however one defines this term, it is obvious that it signifies a limited
period of time, and not eternity: and this is in tune with many indications
in the Qur'an to the effect that the suffering described as "hell" is
not eternal (see note 114 on the last paragraph of 6:128), as well as with
several authentic sayings of the Prophet (e.g., the one quoted in note 10 on
40:12).
13 For my rendering of hamim
as "burning despair", see surah 6, note 62. The meaning of ghassaq
is explained in note 47 on 38:57-58.
14 Lit., "We shall not
increase you in anything but suffering": i.e., until the sins committed in
this world are atoned for by commensurate suffering in the hereafter - for
"whoever shall come [before God] with an evil deed will be requited with
no more than the like thereof; and none shall be wronged" (6:160).
15 I.e., the fulfilment of all
that a human being may ever desire (Razi), symbolized by the "luxuriant
gardens", etc., of the sequence.
16 For the above rendering of atrab,
see surah 56, note 15. As regards my rendering of kawa’ib as
"splendid companions", it is to be remembered that the term ka'b -from
which the participle ka’ib is derived - has many meanings, and that one
of these meanings is "prominence", "eminence" or
"glory" (Lisan al-Arab); thus, the verb ka'ba, when
applied to a person, signifies "he made [another person] prominent",
"glorious" or "splendid" (ibid.) Based on this
tropical meaning of both the verb ka'ba and the noun ka'b, the
participle ka'ib has often been used, in popular parlance, to denote
"a girl whose breasts are becoming prominent" or "are
budding" hence, many commentators see in it an allusion to some sort of
youthful "female companions' who would entertain the (presumably male)
inmates of paradise. But quite apart from the fact that all Qur'anic allegories
of the joys of paradise invariably apply to men and women alike, this
interpretation of kawa’ib overlooks the purely derivative origin
of the above popular usage - which is based on the tropical connotation of
"prominence" inherent in the noun ka'b - and substitutes for
this obvious tropism the literal meaning of something that is physically prominent:
and this, in my opinion, is utterly unjustified. If we bear in mind that the
Qur'anic descriptions of the blessings of paradise are always allegorical,
we realize that in the above context the term kawa’ib can have no other
meaning than "glorious [or "splendid"] beings", without any
definition of sex; and that, in combination with the term atrab, it
denotes, "splendid companions well matched" - thus alluding to the
relations of the blest with one another, and stressing the absolute mutual
compatibility and equal dignity of all of them. See also note 13 on 56:34.
17 I.e., not merely in accordance
with their good deeds but far in excess of them, in accordance with God's
unlimited bounty.
18 Lit., "the soul", in
the singular but implying a plural. This is, according to Ibn Abbas, Qatadah
and Al~Hasan (all of them quoted by Tabari), the meaning of ar-ruh in the
above context.
19 This includes the symbolic
right of the prophets to "intercede" for the sinners on Judgment Day (see
10:3 - "There is none that could intercede with Him unless He grants leave
therefor"- and the corresponding note 7, which makes it clear that such
"intercession" implies God's a-priori acceptance of the
sinner's repentance). In a wider sense, the statement that he whom God will
allow to speak "will say [only] what is right" implies the
impossibility of anyone's being untruthful on Judgment Day.
20 Cf. 69:1 and the corresponding
note 1. Objectively, it will be the moment when the ultimate reality of human
life and its purpose will become fully accessible to man's
understanding.
21 Cf. 69:27.