079
Muhammad Asad
AN-NAZI'AT (THOSE THAT RISE)
THE SEVENTY-NINTH
SURAH
Total Verses: 45
Introduction
THIS late Meccan surah,
revealed shortly after the preceding one, takes its name from the word an-nazi’at
in the first verse.
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) CONSIDER those [stars] that rise
only to set, 1
(2) and move [in their orbits] with
steady motion, 2
(3) and float [through space] with
floating serene,
(4) and yet overtake [one another] with
swift overtaking: 3
(5) and thus they fulfil the [Creator's]
behest!
(6) [HENCE, 4
think of] the Day when a violent convulsion will convulse [the world],
(7) to be followed by further
[convulsions]!
(8) On that Day will [men's] hearts be
throbbing,
(9) [and] their eyes downcast. . .
(10) [And yet,] some say, "What!
Are we indeed to be restored to our former state –
(11) even though we may have become [a
heap of] crumbling bones?"
(12) [And] they add, "That, then,
would be a return with loss!" 5
(13) [But,] then, that [Last Hour] will
be [upon them of a sudden, as if it were] but a single accusing cry -
(14) and then, lo, they will be fully
awakened [to the truth]!
(15) HAS THE STORY of Moses ever come
within thy ken. 6
(16) Lo! His Sustainer called out to him
in the twice-hallowed valley: 7
(17) "Go unto Pharaoh - for,
verily, he has transgressed all bounds of what is right -
(18) and say[unto him], 'Art thou
desirous of attaining to purity?
(19) [If so,] then I shall guide thee
towards [a cognition of] thy Sustainer, so that [henceforth] thou wilt stand in
awe [of Him].’" 8
(20) And thereupon he [went to Pharaoh
and] made him aware of the great wonder [of God's grace]. 9
(21) But [Pharaoh] gave him the lie and
rebelliously rejected [all guidance],
(22) and brusquely turned his back [on
Moses];
(23) and then he gathered [his great
ones], and called [unto his people],
(24) and said, "I am your Lord
All-Highest!" 10
(25) And thereupon God took him to task,
[and made him] a warning example in the life to come as well as in this world.
11
(26) In this, behold, there is a lesson
indeed for all who stand in awe [of God].
(27) [O MEN!] Are you more difficult to
create than the heaven which He has built? 12
(28) High has He reared its vault and
formed it in accordance with what it was meant to be; 13
(29) and He has made dark its night and
brought forth its light of day.
(30) And after that, the earth: wide has
He spread its expanse,
(31) and has caused its waters to come
out of it, and its pastures, 14
(32) and has made the mountains firm:
(33) [all this] as a means of livelihood
for you and your animals. 15
(34) AND SO, when the great overwhelming
event [of, resurrection] comes to pass –
(35) on that Day man will [clearly]
remember all that he has ever wrought;
(36) and the blazing fire [of hell] will
be lad open before all who [are destined to] see it. 16
(37) For, unto him who shall have
transgressed the bounds of what is right,
(38) and preferred the life of this
world [to the good of his soul],
(39) that blazing fire will truly be the
goal!
(40) But unto him who shall have stood
in fear of his Sustainer's Presence, and held back his inner self from base
desires,
(41) paradise will truly be the goal!
(42) THEY WILL ASK thee [O Prophet]
about the Last Hour: "When will it come to pass?"
(43) [But] how couldst thou tell
anything about it, 17
(44) [seeing that] with thy Sustainer
alone rests the beginning and the end [of all knowledge] thereof? 18
(45) Thou art but [sent] to warn those
who stand in awe of it.
(46) On the Day when they behold it, [it
will seem to them] as if they had tarried [in this world] no longer than one
evening or [one night, ending with] its morn! 19
1 For my
rendering of the adjurative particle wa as "Consider", see
first half of note 23 on 74:32. - The early commentators differ widely in their
explanations of verses 1-5 of this surah. The most popular
interpretation is based on the view that the descriptive participles an-nazi’at,
an-nashitat, as-sabihat, as-sabiqat and al-mudabbirat refer to
angels and their activities with regard to the souls of the dying: an
interpretation categorically rejected by Abu Muslim al-Isfahani, who - as
mentioned by Razi - points out that the angels are never referred to in the
Qur'an in the female gender, as is the case in the above five participles, and
that the present passage cannot be an exception. Almost equally unconvincing -
because somewhat laboured - are the explanations which link those five
participles to the souls of the dying, or to warriors engaged in holy war, or
to war-mounts, and so forth. The clearest and simplest interpretation is that
advanced by Qatadah (as quoted by Tabari and Baghawi) and Al-Hasan al-Basri
(quoted by Baghawi and Razi), who maintain that what is meant in this passage
are the stars - including the sun and the moon - and their movements in
space: and this interpretation is fully in tune with many other passages in the
Qur'an in which the harmony of those celestial bodies in their multiform orbits
and graded speeds is cited as an evidence of God's planning and creativeness.
In accordance with this interpretation, the participle an-nazi’at occurring
in the first verse denotes the daily "ascending" or
"rising" of the stars, while their subsequent "setting" is
indicated by the expression gharqan, which comprises the two concepts of
"drowning" (i.e., disappearing) and, tropically, of the
"completeness" of this daily phenomenon (Zamakhshari).
2 I.e., passing from constellation
to constellation (Zamakhshari).
3 This is apparently an allusion
to the different speeds of the orbiting stars (Al-Hasan and Abu Ubaydah, as
quoted by Razi), as well as to the extent of their orbits in relation to one
another.
4 I.e., upon realizing the
above-mentioned evidence of God's almightiness and, therefore, of man's
subjection to His ultimate judgment.
5 Implying derisively
(Zamakhshari) that in such a case they would be proved wrong in what they now
consider a "reasonable" assumption.
6 Connecting with the preceding
passage, the story of Moses (which appears in much greater detail in 20:9-98)
is cited here as an illustration of the fact that everyone will have to answer
on Judgment Day for whatever he did in life, and that it is the main function
of every prophet to make man aware of this responsibility.
7 See note 9 on
8 Implying that so long as man is
not fully aware of the existence of God, he cannot really discern between what
is morally right or wrong; and since God is just, He does not punish anyone who
has not yet attained to such a discernment (or, as expressed in the preceding
sentence, "to [moral] purity"): cf. 6: 31- "thy Sustainer would
never destroy a community for its wrongdoing so long as its people are still
unaware [of the meaning of right and wrong]".
9 Lit., "showed him the great
wonder", i.e., of the guidance which God, in His measureless grace, offers
even to the most recalcitrant sinner.
10 Cf. 28:38 and the corresponding
note 36. Pharaoh's claim to divine status is the cardinal sin whereby "he
has transgressed all bounds of what is right" (verse 17 above).
11 Lit., "in the first
[life]". See last sentence of 7:137 - "We utterly destroyed all that
Pharaoh and his people had wrought, and all that they had built" - and the
corresponding note 100.
12 Lit., "or the heaven. . .
", etc. The "heaven" is here, as in many other places in the
Qur'an, a metonym for "cosmic system" (cf. note 20 on
13 See 87:2, which is the earliest
instance, in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation, of the use of the verb sawwa
in the above sense.
14 The term "pasture" (mar’a)
connotes here, metonymically, all herbal produce suitable for consumption
by man or animal (Razi).
15 Implying (as in 80:24-32) that
man ought to be grateful to God, and should always be conscious of His being
the Provider: hence the subsequent return of the discourse to the theme of
resurrection and ultimate judgment.
16 Cf. 26:91- "will be laid
open before those who had been lost in grievous error": thus reminding man
that suffering in the hereafter ("hell") is the inevitable
consequence of spiritual self-destruction through deliberate wrongdoing.
17 Lit., "wherein [or
"whereon"] art thou with regard to stating it (min
dhikraha)?"
18 Lit., "its utmost
limit", i.e., the beginning and the end of all that can be known about it.
Cf. 7:187 and the corresponding note 153.
19 As in many other places in the
Qur'an (e.g., in 2:259, 17:52, 18:19, 20:103-104, 23:112-113, 30:55 etc.), this
is a subtle indication of the illusory, earthbound nature of man's concept of
"time" - a concept which, we are told, will lose all its meaning in
the context of the ultimate reality comprised in the term "hereafter"
(al-akhirah).