Az-Zalzala
The Earthquake · verses 1–8
Madinan8 verses
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا
99:1When the earth is rocked with a terrible quake
وَأَخْرَجَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَا
وَقَالَ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ مَا لَهَا
يَوْمَئِذٍۢ تُحَدِّثُ أَخْبَارَهَا
99:4On that day she will relate her chronicles
بِأَنَّ رَبَّكَ أَوْحَىٰ لَهَا
99:5for her Lord will have inspired her.
يَوْمَئِذٍۢ يَصْدُرُ ٱلنَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًۭا لِّيُرَوْا۟ أَعْمَٰلَهُمْ
99:6On that day, mankind will issue forth in various groups to be shown their deeds.5
فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًۭا يَرَهُۥ
وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍۢ شَرًّۭا يَرَهُۥ
99:8and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.
Tafsir
Commentary on this passage
Verse 6
2.In the scenes of Qiyamat two things are distinctively worth paying attention to : (i) All humans will come out from the graves group by group in scattered manner. No one will be of any help to anyone. (ii) Every person will be shown his/her deeds. That means all the deeds are stored in the spiritual world and will be shown to him so that he cannot disown them. This situation itself is a serious punishment. Because every evil-doer has a last wish that his evil deed should not become known to. Just as there is reward for all those who do good that their good deed should be preserved till Qiyamat and it should be known to all. Something that would be possible in Qiyamat.
Footnotes
Explanations of words and phrases in these verses
- 3
Asqaal- All treasures and the dead who would also be brought out for the final accounting.
- 4
Qaalal Insaan - According to some commentators this would be said in astonishment by an infidel and some say it would be uttered by a believer in view of the greatness of the event.
- 5
Ashtaat is the plural of Shateet, that is of different types.
- 6
Zarra - It denotes particles of dust flying in the atmosphere and also a small ant.