Al-Qiyamah

Commentary

لَآ اُقْسِمُ بِيَوْمِ الْقِيٰمَةِ وَلَآ اُقْسِمُ بِالنَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ (I swear by the Day of Resurrection, [ 1] and I swear by the self-reproaching conscience, (that Resurrection is a reality.)...75:1-2). The negative particle la 'nay' prefixed to the oath in this context has no meaning. When the object of oath is to refute the false thought of an opponent, this redundant negative particle is used before oath. This usage is commonplace in Arabic idiom. Such usage is sometimes employed in our language [ in Urdu ] as well [ as an answer to some objection or in repudiation of what is said before or ] to emphasize an important subject. This Surah refutes and rebuts doubts about the possibility of the Resurrection by the rejecters. The Surah first swears an oath by the Resurrection, and then by the self-reproaching conscience. The complement or subject of oath is contextually understood - the Day of Resurrection is a reality and it shall come to pass. The object of oath in verse [ 1] is to affirm and emphasize the importance of the subject about which an oath is taken. In this instance, it is the Resurrection. In verse [ 2], the object of oath is to lay emphasis on the importance of self-reproaching conscience and its acceptability in the sight of Allah. The word nafs means 'soul' or 'life' and the word lawwamah is derived from lawm signifying 'reproach or upbraid'. The phrase refers to the human conscience that upbraids him for doing bad deeds. It upbraids him not only for doing bad deeds, but also for doing good deeds - 'why did you not do more good, and attain higher stages [ of development ]?' In short, a perfect believer reproaches and upbraids himself all the time whether doing good or bad. His reproaching himself for bad deeds is quite understandable, but why should he reproach, blame or criticize himself for good deeds? He should try to reach for higher goals in life by doing better deeds. He upbraids himself for missing out on that score. This interpretation is reported from Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas and other leading authorities on Tafsir [ Ibn Kathir and others ].

On the same basis, Sayyidna Hasan al-Basri interpreted nafs lawwamah as nafs mu'minah meaning, the 'believing soul' and said that 'By Allah! A believer at all times upbraids his own self. It is obvious why he should reproach himself when he commits evil. He reproaches himself when he does good deeds as well, because he feels that he has not performed his duties of servitude and Divine worship adequately. He feels that he has not fulfilled and consummated his obligations of slave-hood perfectly. Therefore, he reproaches himself for his shortcomings in the performance of his duties and obligations.'

Interpretation of Lawwarnah

Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas, Hasan al-Basri and others have expressed the view that Allah has sworn an oath by the self-reproaching conscience in order to show honour for the believing souls who take account of their deeds, regret, and feel sorry for, their shortcomings and reproach themselves. Three kinds of Nafs

The foregoing interpretation of An-nafs-ul-lawwamah embraces An-nafs-ul-mutma` innah. The two terms are titles of a God-fearing

person.

In Sufi terminology, we come across the following concepts. The noble Sufis say that man in his nature goes through three stages of human development. The first stage is called ] An-nafs-ul-ammarah 'the self that tempts (to evil) ' as said by the Holy Qur'an: اِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَاَمَّارَةٌۢ بِالسُّوْۗءِ '...Surely, man's inner self often incites to evil_[ 12:53] '

The second stage of development is called An-nafs-ul-lawwamah 'the self that blames' - translated above as 'the self-reproaching conscience'.

The first stage is developed into the second stage when the traveler perform righteousness, and exerts himself in riyadah 'ascetic discipline' and mujahadah 'spiritual struggle'. This Self is conscious of its own imperfections. It regrets its evils and shortcomings, but it is not completely cut off from the evils. The third and highest stage of development is called An-nafs-ul-mutma'innah 'the self at peace'. This self develops into this stage when it progressively performs righteousness and attains Divine nearness and applies the sacred laws of Shari` ah so rigorously that Shari'ah becomes his nature and develops a natural hatred for anything contrary to Shari` ah . The title of the self at this stage is mutma'innah.

Then an oft-repeated objection of the disbelievers is mentioned, that is, when they are dead and reduced to bones and dust, how will they be raised again to life. The following verse rebuts this objection, thus:

بَلٰى قٰدِرِيْنَ عَلٰٓي اَنْ نُّسَوِّيَ بَنَانَهٗ (Yes! We are able to reset [ even ] his fingertips perfectly... 75:4). Man is amazed and surprised and thinks that Allah is unable to gather his tiny particles that have been scattered and reassemble his decomposed bones and give him a new life. The verse effectively rebuts this objection by saying that this has happened once before. Every man who grows and develops in the world, his body is composed of particles and elements gathered from different parts of the world. Allah has infinite power to do anything. He will gather the disintegrated bones and the scattered particles of man from different parts of the world and give them life again, as he did the first time. It is not impossible for Him to breathe soul into his structure the second time, as it was not impossible the first time. Why should it be surprising?

Divine Wonders in the Resurrection of Bodies

Allah is able not only to raise man's dead body again, but also to reconstruct every part of his body perfectly up to the minute detail of the very delicate fingertips and individual fingerprints. Man will be given the same body as he had in his worldly life without the slightest difference. Since the inception of time until the end of the world, zillions of human beings of different shapes and sizes come and die. Even if anyone remembers them, it is an impossible task to recompose them precisely. But Allah says in the verse under comment that He is quite able to recreate not only the large limbs, members and organs of the dead, but He is also able to put together his fingertips. The word Banan 'fingertips' is specially mentioned here because they are among the smallest parts of the body. If Allah is able to recreate such small parts [ with such precision ], it would not be impossible for Him to recreate the larger limbs of the body, such as

arms or hands or legs or feet.

Another reason why banan 'fingertips' finds a special mention is that Allah has characterized every human body with some identification marks through which one person could be distinctly recognized and distinguished from the other. For instance, the human face is no more than a few square centimeters; yet it has such distinctive characteristics that no two faces look exactly alike. Despite man's tongue and throat being alike, the sounds and voices of young and old, and of men and women are easily distinguishable. Even more amazing than this, are the fingertips and fingerprints. No two thumbprints or fingerprints are alike. Fingertips look alike, but the fingerprints are different. There are zillions of human beings, but the patterns of lines on the skins of the fingers is distinctly recognizable. Thumbprints have played a decisive role in court decisions and judgments. Technical analysis reveals that the patterns of lines are not only on the skin of the thumbs, but also on the skins of all the fingers - distinguishable and recognizable.

In sum, man is amazed as to how Allah will reassemble his bones and give him a new life again, but he should think further than this. He will be raised with the same face, shape and size, and with the same distinctive features, so much so that his fingertips and fingerprints will be reshaped as they were in the first instance of his creation. Fa-tabarak Allahu Ahsanul khaliqin - 'Glorious is Allah, the Best of Creators!'

بَلْ يُرِيْدُ الْاِنْسَانُ لِيَفْجُرَ اَمَامَهٗ (But man wishes to go on violating Allah's injunctions [ even in future ] ahead of him...75:5). The word amam signifies 'ahead or future'. The verse purports to say that the unbeliever or the unmindful man does not ponder over the manifestations of Divine Omnipotence, so that he may regret his denial in the past and make amends for the future. In fact, he wishes to persist in his denial, polytheism and sins even in the future.