Tazkirul Quran · Tafsir · in English
الزلزلة
Az-Zalzalah
The Earthquake · Medinan · 8 ayahs
99:1–8Page 599
إِذَا زُلۡزِلَتِ ٱلۡأَرۡضُ زِلۡزَالَهَا ١
When the earth is shaken with its [final] earthquake
وَأَخۡرَجَتِ ٱلۡأَرۡضُ أَثۡقَالَهَا ٢
And the earth discharges its burdens1
وَقَالَ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنُ مَا لَهَا ٣
And man says,1 "What is [wrong] with it?" -
يَوۡمَئِذٖ تُحَدِّثُ أَخۡبَارَهَا ٤
That Day, it will report its news
بِأَنَّ رَبَّكَ أَوۡحَىٰ لَهَا ٥
Because your Lord has inspired [i.e., commanded] it.
يَوۡمَئِذٖ يَصۡدُرُ ٱلنَّاسُ أَشۡتَاتٗا لِّيُرَوۡاْ أَعۡمَٰلَهُمۡ ٦
That Day, the people will depart1 separated [into categories] to be shown [the result of] their deeds.
فَمَن يَعۡمَلۡ مِثۡقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيۡرٗا يَرَهُۥ ٧
So whoever does an atom's weight1 of good will see it,
وَمَن يَعۡمَلۡ مِثۡقَالَ ذَرَّةٖ شَرّٗا يَرَهُۥ ٨
And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it.
The earthquake on Doomsday will be the announcement of the end of the testing period for man. This would mean that the freedom which was theirs on account of their being on trial, has now been snatched away from them. Now the time has come when human beings will be recompensed for their deeds. Today, God’s world is silent, but when conditions change, everything found here will start talking. The inventions of the present day have proved that lifeless or inanimate things also have the capacity to ‘talk.’ A performance in a studio is fully reproduced by a video film and records. Similarly, the present world is, so to say, a big ‘studio’ of God. Whatever a man does or says or even thinks, everything is being recorded at every moment. And when the time comes, this world will repeat everybody’s story in such a way that not a thing, great or small, will be left out.
Text: through the Quran Foundation. The ayahs: Quran Foundation. Sources and licences