Al-Haqqah

The Reality, the Resurrection in which is realised [the truth of] all that was rejected in the way of the raising [from the graves], the reckoning and the requital, or [it means the Resurrection] which will manifest all of that.

What is the Reality? (ma’l-hāqqa: [an interrogative] to emphasise its enormity; this is the subject as well as the predicate of [the previous] al-hāqqa, ‘the Reality’).

And how would you know what the Reality is? ([repeated as] an extra emphasis of its enormity; the first mā [of the previous verse] is the subject, the second one, its predicate; the second mā and its predicate also function as the second direct object of [the verb] ‘knowing’).

Thamūd and ‘Ād denied the Clatterer, the Resurrection, because its terrors cause the hearts to clatter.

As for Thamūd, they were destroyed by the [overwhelming] Roar, an excessively severe cry.

And as for ‘Ād, they were destroyed by a deafening, intensely clamorous, violent wind, [that was] powerful and severe [in its assault] upon ‘Ād, despite their power and might.

He forced it upon them for seven nights and eight days, the first of which was the morning of Wednesday, eight days before the end of [the month of] Shawwāl, and this was at the height of winter, successively, one after the next (husūman: it [the action of the wind] is likened to the repeated actions of a hāsim, ‘one cauterizing a wound’, time and again until it [the blood] has been cut off, inhsama) so that you might have seen the people therein lying prostrate, lying dead on the ground, as if they were the hollow, collapsed, trunks of palm-trees.

So do you see any remnant of them? (min bāqiyatin: this is either the adjectival qualification of an implicit nafs, ‘soul’, or the [final suffixed] tā’ is for hyperbole, in other words [understand it as fa-hal tarā lahum] min bāqin, ‘any one remaining?’ No!).

And Pharaoh and those of his followers (man qibalahu: a variant reading has man qablahu, that is to say, those disbelieving communities who came before him) and the Deviant [cities], that is, their inhabitants — these being the cities of the people of Lot — brought iniquity, [they committed] deeds that were iniquitous.

Then they disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, namely, Lot and others, so He seized them with a devastating blow, one surpassing others in its severity.

Truly when the waters rose high, [when] they rose above all things including mountains and otherwise at the time of the Flood, We carried you, meaning, your forefathers, you being in their loins, in the sailing vessel, the ark which Noah built and by which he and those with him were saved while all the others drowned,

so that We might make it, namely, this act, the saving of the believers and the destruction of the disbelievers, a reminder, a lesson, for you and that receptive ears, [ears] which remember what they hear, might remember it.

Thus when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, to [announce] the passing of judgement upon all creatures — this being the second [blast] —

and the earth and the mountains are lifted and levelled with a single levelling,

then, on that day, the [imminent] Event will come to pass, the Resurrection will take place,

and the heaven will be rent asunder — for it will be very frail on that day —

and the angels will be [all] over its borders, the edges of the heavens, and above them — the angels that have been mentioned — on that day eight, angels or [eight] files of them, will carry the Throne of your Lord.

On that day you will be exposed, before the Reckoning. No hidden thing of yours, in the way of secrets, will remain hidden (read [feminine person] takhfā or [masculine person] yakhfā).

As for him who is given his book in his right hand, he will say, addressing those around him, on account of the joy that has come to him: ‘Here, take [and], read my book! (kitābiyah: both hā’ūmu, ‘here [is]’, and iqra’ū, ‘read’, compete for [government of] this [direct object]).

I was truly certain that I would encounter my account’.

So he will enjoy a pleasant living,

in a lofty Garden,

whose clusters, whose fruits, are in easy reach, nearby, reached [easily] by one who may be standing, or sitting or reclining.

And so it will be said to them: ‘Eat and drink in enjoyment (hanī’an is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say, mutahanni’īna, ‘while you are enjoying [them]’) for what you did in advance in former days’, [in days] that have passed during the [life of the] world.

But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say, ‘O (yā is for calling attention [to something]) would that I had not been given my book,

and not known what my account were!

O would that it, namely, death in [the life of] this world, had been the [final] end, that had terminated my life, so that I am not resurrected.

My wealth has not availed me.

My authority, my strength, my argument, has gone from me’ (the [final] hā’ in kitābiyah, ‘my book’, hisābiyah, ‘my account’, and sultāniyah, ‘my authority’, is for [consonantal] quiescence; and it is retained [when reciting] with a pause as well as without a pause, in accordance with the authoritative [version of the] Qur’ānic text and the transmitted reports; some elide it when reciting without a pause).

‘Seize him — addressing the keepers of Hell — then fetter him, bind his hands to his necks in fetters,

then admit him into Hell-fire, into the scorching Fire,

then in a chain whose length is seventy cubits — [each cubit being] that of an angel’s forearm — insert him, after admitting him into the Fire (the fā’ [of fa’slukūhu] does not prevent the verb from being semantically connected to the preceding adverbial clause).

Lo! he never believed in God the Tremendous,

and never urged the feeding of the needy;

therefore here today he has no [loyal] friend, [no] relative to avail him,

nor any food except pus, the vile excretions of the inhabitants of the Fire — or it [ghislīn] may denote certain trees therein —

which none shall eat but the sinners’, the disbelievers.

So indeed (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by all that you see, of creatures,

and all that you do not see: of them, in other words, [I swear] by all creatures:

it, that is to say, the Qur’ān, is indeed the speech of a noble messenger, in other words, he has spoken it as a message from God, exalted be He.

And it is not the speech of a poet. Little do you believe!

Nor [is it] the speech of a soothsayer. Little do you remember! (read both verbs either in the second person plural or in the third person plural; the mā [preceding both verbs] is extra, intended for emphasis). The meaning is: they believed and remembered only very few things of what the Prophet (s) did, [things] such as [his] good acts, [his] kindness to kin and abstinence; yet this will be of no avail to them.

Rather, it is, a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.

And had he, namely, the Prophet (s), fabricated any lies against Us, by communicating from Us that which We have not said,

We would have assuredly seized him, We would have exacted vengeance [against him], as punishment, by the Right Hand, by [Our] strength and power;

then We would have assuredly severed his life-artery, the aorta of the heart, a vein that connects with it, and which if severed results in that person’s death,

and not one of you (ahadin is the subject of mā, min being extra, used to emphasise the negation; minkum is a circumstantial qualifier referring to ahadin) could have defended him (hājizīna is the predicate of [the preceding] mā, and it is used in the plural because ahad, when employed in a negatory context, denotes a plural sense; the [suffixed] pronoun in ‘anhu refers to the Prophet), in other words, there is none to prevent Us from punishing him.

And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a reminder for the God-fearing.

And assuredly We know that some of you, O people, are deniers, of the Qur’ān, and [some of you are] believers [in it].

And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a [cause of] anguish for the disbelievers, when they see the reward of those who affirmed its truth and the punishment of those who denied it.

And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is the certain truth.

So glorify, exalt as transcendent, the Name (bi’smi: the bā’ [bi-] is extra) of your Lord, the Tremendous: glory be to Him.