Surah 82. Al-Infitar- Asad Translation
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IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF
GRACE: |
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Description of What will happen on the day of judgement and Guardian angels are recording all actions and Allah Himself will be the Judge
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1 | WHEN THE SKY is cleft asunder,1 | ||
| 2 | and when the stars are scattered, | |||
| 3 | and when the seas burst beyond their bounds, | |||
| 4 | and when the graves are overturned | |||
| 5 | every human being will [at last] comprehend what he has sent ahead and what he has held back [in this world].2 | |||
| 6 | O MAN! What is it that lures thee away from thy bountiful Sustainer,3 | |||
| 7 | who has created thee, and formed thee in accordance with what thou art meant to be,4 and shaped thy nature in just proportions,5 | |||
| 8 | having put thee together in whatever form He willed [thee to have]? | |||
| 9 | Nay, [O men,] but you [are lured away from God whenever you are tempted to] give the lie to [God's] Judgment!6 | |||
| 10 | And yet, verily, there are ever-watchful forces over you, | |||
| 11 | noble, recording, | |||
| 12 | aware of whatever you do!7 | |||
| 13 | Behold, [in the life to come] the truly virtuous will indeed be in bliss, | |||
| 14 | whereas, behold, the wicked will indeed be in a blazing fire - | |||
| 15 | [a fire] which they shall enter on Judgment Day, | |||
| 16 | and which they shall not [be able to] evade. | |||
| 17 | And what could make thee conceive what that Judgment Day will be? | |||
| 18 | And once again: What could make thee conceive what that Judgment Day will be?8 | |||
| 19 | [It will be] a Day when no human being shall be of the least avail to another human being: for on that Day [it will become manifest that] all sovereignty is God's alone. |
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Ayah_translation Comments
Note - 1An allusion to the Last Hour, when the world as known to
man will come to an end and the ultimate reality of the
hereafter will begin.
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Note - 2I.e., what he has done and what he has omitted to do. An
alternative rendering would be, "what he has placed
forward and what he has placed behind", i.e., what he
prized more and what less in his erstwhile, subjective
valuation. Thus, at the moment of resurrection man will
suddenly understand the true motivations and moral
implications of whatever he did - or consciously
refrained from doing - during his life in this world: and
this applies to all the good deeds he did and the sins he
refrained from, as well as to all the sins he committed
and the good deeds he failed to do.
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Note - 3A rhetorical question implying that no human being is
ever entirely immune against "that temptation to evil
(fitnah) which does not befall only those among you who
are bent on denying the truth" (see 8:25 and the
corresponding note [25]). The answer is given in verse
{9} below.
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Note - 4I.e., "endowed thee with all the qualities and abilities
relevant to the exigencies of thy individual life and thy
environment".
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Note - 5Lit., "made thee proportionate", i.e., a being subject to
physical needs and emotional urges, and at the same time
endowed with intellectual and spiritual perceptions: in
other words, a being in whom there is no inherent
conflict between the demands of "the spirit and the
flesh", since both these aspects of the human condition
are - as stressed in the next verse - God-willed and,
therefore, morally justified.
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Note - 6In view of the fact that the whole of this passage is
addressed to "man" or "men" in general, and not merely to
deniers of the truth, I believe that the expression "you
give the lie" does not, in this context, necessarily
imply a conscious denial of God's ultimate judgment but,
rather, a tendency inherent in most human beings to close
one's mind - occasionally or permanently, as the ease may
be - to the prospect of having to answer before God for
one's doings: hence my rendering, "you are tempted to
give the lie".
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Note - 7The classical commentators are of the opinion that we
have here a reference to the guardian angels who record,
allegorically, all of men's deeds. However. another
explanation has been suggested by me in my rendering of
{50:16-23} and elaborated in the corresponding notes
[11-16]. In consonance with that interpretation, the
"watchful force" (hafiz) set over every human being is
his own conscience, which "records" all his motives and
actions in his subconscious mind. Since it is the most
precious element in man's psyche, it is described in
verse {11} as "noble".
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Note - 8For my rendering of thumma at the beginning of this verse
as "And once again", see surah {6} note [31]. The
repetition of this rhetorical question is meant to
indicate that man's intellect and imagination cannot
possibly answer it, since what is described as the Day of
Judgment will usher in a reality which as yet is wholly
outside our human experience and, therefore, cannot be
grasped conceptually: hence, only allegory - and our own
emotional response to it - can give us an inkling of what
that reality might be.
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| 1 | An allusion to the Last Hour, when the world as known to
man will come to an end and the ultimate reality of the
hereafter will begin. |
| 2 | I.e., what he has done and what he has omitted to do. An
alternative rendering would be, "what he has placed
forward and what he has placed behind", i.e., what he
prized more and what less in his erstwhile, subjective
valuation. Thus, at the moment of resurrection man will
suddenly understand the true motivations and moral
implications of whatever he did - or consciously
refrained from doing - during his life in this world: and
this applies to all the good deeds he did and the sins he
refrained from, as well as to all the sins he committed
and the good deeds he failed to do. |
| 3 | A rhetorical question implying that no human being is
ever entirely immune against "that temptation to evil
(fitnah) which does not befall only those among you who
are bent on denying the truth" (see 8:25 and the
corresponding note [25]). The answer is given in verse
{9} below. |
| 4 | I.e., "endowed thee with all the qualities and abilities
relevant to the exigencies of thy individual life and thy
environment". |
| 5 | Lit., "made thee proportionate", i.e., a being subject to
physical needs and emotional urges, and at the same time
endowed with intellectual and spiritual perceptions: in
other words, a being in whom there is no inherent
conflict between the demands of "the spirit and the
flesh", since both these aspects of the human condition
are - as stressed in the next verse - God-willed and,
therefore, morally justified. |
| 6 | In view of the fact that the whole of this passage is
addressed to "man" or "men" in general, and not merely to
deniers of the truth, I believe that the expression "you
give the lie" does not, in this context, necessarily
imply a conscious denial of God's ultimate judgment but,
rather, a tendency inherent in most human beings to close
one's mind - occasionally or permanently, as the ease may
be - to the prospect of having to answer before God for
one's doings: hence my rendering, "you are tempted to
give the lie". |
| 7 | The classical commentators are of the opinion that we
have here a reference to the guardian angels who record,
allegorically, all of men's deeds. However. another
explanation has been suggested by me in my rendering of
{50:16-23} and elaborated in the corresponding notes
[11-16]. In consonance with that interpretation, the
"watchful force" (hafiz) set over every human being is
his own conscience, which "records" all his motives and
actions in his subconscious mind. Since it is the most
precious element in man's psyche, it is described in
verse {11} as "noble". |
| 8 | For my rendering of thumma at the beginning of this verse
as "And once again", see surah {6} note [31]. The
repetition of this rhetorical question is meant to
indicate that man's intellect and imagination cannot
possibly answer it, since what is described as the Day of
Judgment will usher in a reality which as yet is wholly
outside our human experience and, therefore, cannot be
grasped conceptually: hence, only allegory - and our own
emotional response to it - can give us an inkling of what
that reality might be. |
