099
Muhammad Asad
AL-ZALZALAH (THE EARTHQUAKE)
THE NINETY-NINTH SURAH
Total Verses: 8
PERIOD UNCERTAIN
Introduction
MOST
PROBABLY revealed in the early part of the
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF
GRACE:
(1) WHEN THE EARTH quakes with her [last] mighty quaking,
(2) and [when] the earth yields up
her burdens, 1
(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
(6) On that Day will all men come forward, cut off from one
another, 3 to be shown their [past] deeds.
(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.
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1 I.e., all that was hitherto
hidden in it, including the bodies- or the remnants -
of the dead.
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).
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.