Surah 78. An-Naba

ABOUT WHAT do they [most often] ask one another?

  - Mohammad Asad

About what are they asking?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

What are they asking one another about?

  - Mustafa Khattab

Whereof do they question one another?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Concerning what are they disputing?

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

About the awesome tiding [of resurrection],

  - Mohammad Asad

About the mighty event

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

About the momentous news,

  - Mustafa Khattab

(It is) of the awful tidings,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Concerning the Great News ⁵⁸⁸⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Great News: usually understood to mean the News or Message of the Resurrection or the Hereafter, about which there are various schools of thought among the Jews and Christians and other nations. There is practically nothing about the Resurrection in the Old Testament, and the Jewish sect of Sadducees even in the time of Christ denied the Resurrection altogether. The Pagan ideas of a future life-if any-varied from place to place and from time to time. Even in the early Christian Church, as we learn from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, there were contentions in that little community (1, Corinthians, i. 11), and some definitely denied the resurrection of the dead (ib., xv. 12). Great News may also be translated Great Message or a Message Supreme as I have translated at xxxviii. 67. In that case it would refer to the Qur-an, or the Message of Revelation, or the Message of the Holy Prophet, about which there was great contention in those days. As this Message also lays great stress on the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection, the practical result by either mode of interpretation amounts to the same.

on which they [so utterly] disagree.¹

  - Mohammad Asad

- the theme of their disputes.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

over which they disagree.¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 The pagans used to mock the teachings of the Quran (e.g., resurrection and judgment). They disagreed whether the Quran was magic, poetry, or fortune-telling.

Concerning which they are in disagreement.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

About which they cannot agree.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Nay, but in time they will come to understand [it]!

  - Mohammad Asad

Very soon they shall come to know;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But no! They will come to know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay, but they will come to know!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Verily they shall soon (come to) know!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And once again:² Nay, but in time they will come to understand!

  - Mohammad Asad

For this rendering of the particle thumma, see surah {6}, note [31].

We repeat, very soon they shall come to know.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Again, no! They will come to know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay, again, but they will come to know!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Verily verily they shall soon (come to) know!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

HAVE WE NOT made the earth a resting-place [for you],

  - Mohammad Asad

Is it not true that We have spread the earth like a bed,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Have We not smoothed out the earth 'like a bed',

  - Mustafa Khattab

Have We not made the earth an expanse,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse ⁵⁸⁹⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

See n. 2038 to xvi. 15. Cf. also xiii. 3 and xv. 19. The spacious expanse of the earth may be compared to a carpet, to which the mountains act as pegs. The Signs of Allah are thus enumerated: the great panorama of outer nature (verses 6-7); the creation of Man in pairs, with the succession of rest and work fitting in with the succession of night and day (verses 8-11); the firmaments above, with their splendid lights (verses 12-13); and the clouds and rain and abundant harvests, which knit sky and earth and man together (verses 14-16). These point to Allah, and Allah's Message points to the Future Life.

and the mountains [its] pegs?³

  - Mohammad Asad

See 16:15 - "He has placed firm mountains on earth, lest it sway with you" - and the corresponding note [11], which explains the reference to mountains as "pegs". - The whole of this passage (verses {6-16}) is meant to illustrate God's almightiness and creativeness, as if to say, "Is not He who has created the universe equally able to resurrect and re-create man in whatever form He deems necessary?"

and the mountains as pegs,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and 'made' the mountains as 'its' pegs,¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 Just like tent pegs and icebergs, mountains go deep below the surface, slowing tectonic movement.

And the high hills bulwarks?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And the mountains as pegs?

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And We have created you in pairs;⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

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-ll}.

created you in pairs,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and created you in pairs,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And We have created you in pairs,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And (have We not) created you in pairs

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

and We have made your sleep [a symbol of] death⁵

  - Mohammad Asad

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".

provided you rest in sleep,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and made your sleep for rest,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And have appointed your sleep for repose,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And made your sleep for rest

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

and made the night [its] cloak

  - Mohammad Asad

made the night a mantle,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and made the night as a cover,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And have appointed the night as a cloak,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And made the night as a covering ⁵⁸⁹¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The darkness of the night is as a covering. Just as a covering protects us from exposure to cold or heat, so this covering gives us spiritual respite from the buffets of the material world, and from the tiring activities of our own inner exertions. The rest in sleep (in verse 9) is supplemented by the covering of the night with which we are provided by Allah.