Verses 1–10
This chapter depicts the Greater Resurrection (al-Qiyāma al-Kubrā), in which humankind will be resurrected from their graves, held to account for their deeds, and recompensed for them. It begins, first, by describing some of the terrors that will befall the human being and the world he inhabits; how its usual state of affairs will be overturned and thrown into disarray. Some things will be lowered and others raised. The earth will quake forcefully, and the mountains will be ground to dust. People will be divided into three overall groups—The People of Good Fortune, The People of Ill Fortune, and the Foremost Ones. The Qurʾan details what will become of each of the three groups.
After this, it addresses its arguments to The People of Ill Fortune, who deny God’s lordship, the truth of the Resurrection, and reject the message of the Qurʾan which calls them to monotheism and belief in the Hereafter. The chapter concludes by describing the last moments before a person’s death and the division of humanity into the three aforementioned groups.
Based on the context, content, and tone of its verses, this chapter is of Meccan provenance.
Commentary
إِذَا وَقَعَتِ الْوَاقِعَةُ ١
(56:1) When the Imminent Event befalls (idhā waqaʿat al–Wāqiʿa)
The verb wuqūʿ means for an event to take place, while al-Wāqiʿa (‘the Imminent Event’) is an adjective (ṣifa) that describes any event. Here, it refers to the event of the Resurrection and is used as a proper name as if to say that the event is so well known that there is no need to mention the noun. This is why some scholars have said that al-Wāqiʿa is one of the names given to the Resurrection in the Qurʾan, akin to al-Ḥāqqa (‘the Besieger’), al-Qāriʿa (‘the Catastrophe’), or al-Ghāshiya (‘the Enveloper’).
The sentence, When the Imminent Event befalls, is constructed like the antecedent (or condition) of a conditional sentence, but no consequent (that is, what will happen When the Imminent Event befalls) for it is given. This is in order to aggrandize and magnify the importance of the Resurrection. In any case, the implicit meaning of the consequent can be known from the content of the chapter detailing the condition of the people on the Day of Judgement, in short: ‘When the Imminent Event befalls, the faithful will triumph and the faithless will lose.’
لَيْسَ لِوَقْعَتِهَا كَاذِبَةٌ ٢
(56:2) there is no denying that it will befall (laysa li waqʿatihā kādhiba)
In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, we read:
‘Kādhiba is an infinitive like ʿāfiya or ʿāqiba (as opposed to an active participle, which it resembles in form).’
Therefore, the meaning of this verse is as follows: ‘There is no denying its occurrence and its incidence.’ Others have said that kādhiba is, in fact, an adjective (meaning ‘false’) with an implicit noun, which would render the meaning: ‘Its occurrence is not something false.’
خَافِضَةٌ رَافِعَةٌ ٣
(56:3) lowering, raising (khāfiḍa, rāfiʿa)
These are both descriptions of the Imminent Event. Khāfiḍa and rāfiʿa are opposites to one another, and describing the Imminent Event with both of them is intended to convey the fact that this event will overturn the entirety of the cosmic order that governs the material realm. When this happens, the secrets of the universe will become known, while these are currently veiled. At the same time, the usual chain of cause and effect that is visible today will disappear; the mighty disbelievers and sinners will be humbled and the Godwary will be made mighty.
إِذَا رُجَّتِ الْأَرْضُ رَجًّا ٤
(56:4) When the earth is shaken violently (rujjat rajjan)
The verb rajj signifies intense movement and is used here in reference to the quaking that will take place when the Hour sets in, which God magnifies in the Qurʾan, in the verse, Indeed the quake of the Hour is a terrible thing (), and in the present verse because it speaks about the shaking of the entire earth. It emphasizes its severity by using the absolute object rajjan without any sort of adjective, as if to say that its shaking is so powerful as to be beyond description. This sentence is either an extension (badal) or explanation (bayān) of the first verse of the chapter, When the Imminent Event befalls.
وَبُسَّتِ الْجِبَالُ بَسًّا ٥ فَكَانَتْ هَبَاءً مُنْبَثًّا ٦
(56:5–6) and the mountains are shattered into bits (bussat al–jibāl bassan) and become scattered dust (habāʾan munbaththan),
This follows on from the previous verse; bass means for a body to be ground down and reduced to a fine dust like flour. Some have said it means for them to be set in motion, as per the verse, and the mountains will be set moving ().
As for habāʾ, some have said it refers to dust; others have said it refers to the motes of dust that are visible in a sunbeam that enters through an aperture. Meanwhile, inbithāth means to be dispersed or spread out.
Based on this, the meaning of the verse is clear.
وَكُنْتُمْ أَزْوَاجًا ثَلَاثَةً ٧
(56:7) you will be three groups (azwājan thalātha)
Azwāj is the plural of zawj and is used here in the sense of class or category (rather than partner). This verse is addressed to all humankind.
فَأَصْحَابُ الْمَيْمَنَةِ مَا أَصْحَابُ الْمَيْمَنَةِ ٨
(56:8) The People of Good Fortune (aṣḥāb al–maymana)—and what are The People of Good Fortune?
This follows on from the previous verse in that it begins to explain who these three groups are—an explanation that is continued in the subsequent two verses.
Maymana is derived from yumn (‘success’ or ‘good fortune’), the opposite of shuʾm (‘calamity’ or ‘misfortune’). Therefore, The People of Good Fortune (aṣḥāb al-maymana) are the people of felicity and success, while The People of Ill Fortune (aṣḥāb al-mashʾama) are the people of misery and calamities. The view that maymana refers to the ‘right hand’ (yamīn) because they will be given the record of their deeds in their right hands, while others will be given the record of their deeds in their left hands is to be rejected. This is because here aṣḥāb al-maymana is contrasted with aṣḥāb al-mashʾama, and mashʾama refers not to the left hand but to ill fortune, whereas if the left hand was meant, the Qurʾan would have called them aṣḥāb al-shimāl, as is obvious.
As for the question, and what are The People of Good Fortune?, its answer is, The People of Good Fortune. The construction of this verse is intended to magnify and aggrandize them.
وَأَصْحَابُ الْمَشْأَمَةِ مَا أَصْحَابُ الْمَشْأَمَةِ ٩
(56:9) And The People of Ill Fortune (aṣḥāb al–mashʾama)—and what are The People of Ill Fortune?
Mashʾama is derived from shuʾum just as maymana is derived from yamīn, and maymana and mashʾama refer to felicity and misery respectively.
وَالسَّابِقُونَ السَّابِقُونَ ١٠
(56:10) And the Foremost Ones are the foremost ones
The most appropriate verses to explain the identity of the Foremost Ones (in the first instance) are: Yet some of them are those who wrong themselves, and some of them are average, and some of them are those who take the lead in all the good works by Allah’s will (); Everyone has a cynosure to which he turns; so take the lead in all good works (); it is they who are zealous in good works, and take the lead in them ();
Therefore, the meaning of the Foremost Ones in its first instance in this verse are those who take the lead and are foremost in good works. Then, when they take the lead in good works, they are the foremost in receiving God’s forgiveness and mercy in response. See, for example, the verse, Take the lead towards forgiveness from your Lord and a paradise (). Therefore, those who take the lead in good works are the first to receive God’s mercy. This is the meaning of the Foremost Ones are the foremost ones.
Some have said that the second instance of the foremost ones in the verse refers back to the first instance, akin to the poem:
‘I am Abū al-Najm, and my poetry is my poetry (shiʿrī shiʿrī).’
The verse, The Foremost Ones are the foremost ones is subject and predicate. Some have said that the first instance of The Foremost Ones is the subject of a sentence, and the second instance is repetition for emphasis.
Scholars have also suggested a number of possible interpretations of The Foremost Ones. Some have said that they are the ones who hasten to everything that God calls them towards. Others say that they were the ones who were the first to belief and obedience and embraced both without delay. Others still say that they are the prophets because they were the pioneers of the people of faith. Then there are some who say that this refers to the believer from Pharaoh’s people, and Ḥabīb Najjār, who is the believer mentioned in Sūrah Yāsīn (), and ʿAlī, who was the first to believe in the Prophet and is the best of the Foremost Ones. Others say that the Foremost Ones are those who hastened to emigrate to Medina. Others still say that they are those who hasten to their five daily prayers. Still others say that this term refer to those believers who prayed towards both qiblas. Then some say that they are the ones who hasten to strive in the way of God. And there are other opinions besides this.
The first two opinions cited here both return to the interpretation we have offered; the third and fourth are best understood as providing exemplars (tamthīl) for the Foremost Ones; while the remainder are evidently weak, unless these too are understood as highlighting exemplary characteristics of those described by the verse.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Khiṣāl, al-Ṣadūq narrates from al-Zuhrī, ‘I heard ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn say, “Whoever does not take consolation in God will spend his life in this world consumed by regret. By God, this world and the hereafter are naught but akin to the two sides of a scale; when one is heavy, the other is light. When the Imminent Event befalls—meaning the Resurrection—there is no denying that it will befall, lowering—by God, the enemies of God will be lowered into Hell—raising—by God, the friends of God will be raised to Paradise.”’
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, we read: When the Imminent Event befalls, there is no denying that it will befall—he said, ‘the Resurrection is true’—lowering—‘the enemies of God’—raising—’the friends of God’—When the earth is shaken violently—’when its parts crash together’—and the mountains are shattered into bits—‘the mountains are torn out at their roots’—and become scattered dust—like the motes you see floating in a sunbeam.
You will be three groups—the Day of Resurrection— The People of Good Fortune—and what are The People of Good Fortune? And The People of Ill Fortune—and what are The People of Ill Fortune? And the Foremost Ones are the foremost ones—those who will be foremost in reaching Paradise.
Author’s comments: When al-Qummī says ‘those who will be foremost in reaching Paradise’, this is an explanation of the second instance of the foremost ones in the verse.
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, al-Suyūṭī cites ʿAbd b. Ḥamīd, Ibn Jarīr, and Ibn al-Mundhir, who narrate from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, Dust () refers to the scattered motes which you see hovering in sunlight.’
- In the same source, he cites Ibn Mardawayh, who narrates from Ibn ʿAbbās about the verse, the Foremost Ones are the foremost ones: ‘It was revealed about Ḥazaqīl, the believer from the people of Pharaoh, Ḥabīb al-Najjār, who is mentioned in Yāsīn, and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Each of them was the foremost of their people, and ʿAlī was the best of them in precedence.’
- In Majmaʿ al-bayān, al-Ṭabrisī quotes Imām al-Bāqir as saying: ‘The Foremost Ones are four persons: The slain son of Adam, the forerunner of Moses’ nation—the believer from Pharaoh’s people, the forerunner of Jesus’ nation—Ḥabīb al-Najjār, and the forerunning of Muḥammad’s nation—ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib.’
Author’s comments: A tradition with the same meaning is also narrated in Rawḍat al-wāʿiẓīn from Imām al-Ṣādiq.
- In his Amālī, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd narrates via his chain of transmission from Ibn ʿAbbās: ‘I asked the Messenger of God about the verse, And the Foremost Ones are the foremost ones, they are the ones brought near, in the gardens of bliss (). He said, “Gabriel told me, ‘These are ʿAlī and his supporters (shīʿa), they are the foremost in reaching paradise, where they are brought near to God by virtue of His grace to them.’”’
- In Kamāl al-dīn, al-Ṣadūq relates via his chain of narrators from Khaythama al-Kuʿfī, from Imām al-Bāqir the tradition: ‘We are the Foremost ones are the foremost ones and we are the later ones ().’
- In ʿUyūn akhbār al-Riḍā, in the chapter Bāb mā jāʾ ʿan al-Riḍā min al-akhbār al-majmūʿa, al-Ṣadūq narrates via a chain of transmitters going back to ʿAlī: ‘The verse, and the Foremost Ones are the foremost ones, they are the ones brought near, was revealed about me.’
- In Majmaʿ al-bayān, about the same verse, al-Ṭabrisī writes: ‘It is said this refers to those who hasten to the five daily prayers. This is narrated from ʿAlī.’
Author’s comments: The proper understanding of all of these narrations is that they are providing exemplars of the Foremost Ones, as we have already discussed.