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Part 10
Sura Mursalat 77:1-15
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful
1. "By those (Angels)(winds)
sent forth one after another,"
2. "And those who move as a
hurricane;"
3. "By those who scatter far
and wide,"
4. "And those who separate
(one from another);"
5. "And by those who reveal
the (Divine) Reminder,"
6. "To justify or to warn;"
7. "Surely that which you
are promised (for the Resurrection) will befall."
8. "Then when the stars are
extinguished;"
9. "And when the heaven is
cleft asunder;"
10. "And when the mountains
are carried away;"
11. "And when the prophets are
called unto their time appointed
(for witness);"
12. "For what Day is this
(portent) deferred?"
13. "For the Day of Sorting
out (right from wrong)".
14. "What do you know about
the Day of Sorting out?".
15. "Ah woe, that Day, to
the Rejecters of Truth!".
Commentary:
Allah's Promises Surely
Befall! Woe to the Rejecters of Truth!
At
the beginning of this Sura, there are five oaths in five verses about which
many comments have been made and they are:
"By those
(Angels) (winds) sent forth one after another,"
"And those who
move as a hurricane;"
"And By those who
scatter far and wide,"
"And those who
separate (one from another);"
"And By those (the
prophets) who reveal the (Divine) Reminder,"
"To justify or to
warn;"
Now,
let us see what these mysterious oaths, which announce some great events, mean.
Here are three known ideas:
1.
All five parts mean winds and hurricanes, which have an effective role in
nature. If so, the verses mean:
"By the winds sent forth one
after another.
"By the violent hurricanes
which move;"
"By those which scatter
clouds and bring down, to Earth, the lively droplets of rain through the
clouds,"
"By those which scatter
clouds after falling rain;"
"By the very winds which
remind men of Allah,"
(Some
others have said that the winds are of tormenting winds. This idea is opposite
to the above, but it is also a reminder )
2.
If all the oaths are sworn to Angels, then,the verses would mean:
"By the Angels sent forth
(to the prophets) one after another,"
(or, the Angels sent forth
with some definite known plans),"
"And by those who move, as a
hurricane, to carry out their mission:
"By those who deliver the
heavenly verses and scatter them,"
"And those who, by this
action, separate purity from evil;"
"And those who give Allah's
Messages and instructions to
prophets,"
3.
The first and the second oaths are about winds and hurricanes, but the third,
the fourth and the fifth ones are about Angels and their mission: ie.
distributing the verses, sorting out the right from the wrong and revealing Allah's instructions to prophets for
justice and warning.
The
first factor, which caused the third idea to form and separated these verses
into two groups, is the conjunction 'and'
in two of the verses, and another form of relative juncture; the Arabic
letter 'ف' (f),
which occurs in the rest.
The
second factor is the important sense that verse seven consists of. All the
oaths are for the subject matter of this verse, that is, the reality of the Resurrection and the Hereafter.
We
know that at the beginning of the Resurrection there will be many great
happenings that will change the world. There will be violent storms,
earthquakes, and some other shaking events on the one hand, and on the other
hand, formation of the Great Judgment, where Angels divide the individuals'
records, and separate the believers from unbelievers, communicating Allah's decree to them.
If
the above five verses are stated according to this idea, they are suited to
what they are sworn to, and, from this point of view, the last idea is superior
to the first two.
The
last word in verse five, /zikr/; 'Reminder',
means either the knowledge bestowed upon the prophets, or the verses
revealed to them. And we know that in the verses of Qur'an the word 'Qur'an', itself, means Reminder; as we see in Sura Al-Hijr.
No. 15. verse 6, "And they say: O thou to
whom the Reminder is revealed! Thou art indeed a mad man!".
Gabriel,
who revealed the Message to the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), was only one angel, but /mulqiyat/ 'angels' is in a
plural form. Since, according to some narrations, sometimes large groups of
angels accompanied Gabriel to bring the verses; as in Sura Abasa, No. 80, verse 15 which denotes that verses are revealed
to the Prophet (p.b.u.h) "by the hands of
Angels".
What
are these oaths for? The next verse uncovers the secret:
"Surely that which you are
promised (for the Resurrection) will
befall."
There
is no doubt that resurrection and bringing man to life again, recompense and
punishment, reckoning and retribution (judgment) are right and proper.
This
verse demands that all of Allah's
promises are sure irrespective of the promises to good-doers and
evildoers in this world and in the Hereafter.
There
is nothing mentioned about the Resurrection in this verse, but in the former
verses there are some hints to Resurrection, which confirm that it exists. For
example, giving life to the dead lands by sending down rain, which is an
illustrative incident of Resurrection; revealing Allah's instructions to the prophets; and appointing Messengers,
all of which would be meaningless without the Hereafter. Then, the promised
Resurrection is bound to come.
Similar
to that is Sura Zariyat, No. 51,
verse 22-23: "And in heaven is your
sustenance,..." and "Then, by the Lord of heaven and earth, this is the very
Truth..."
The
oath to the Lord /rabb/ 'the Owner, the
Cherisher' denotes that our sustenance is seriously true, and it is the
Lord's Wisdom which demands that
sustenance be provided to the creatures.
Through
the following three verses, the signs of that Day are pointed out: "Then when the stars are extinguished;"
"And when the sky is cleft
asunder;"
"And when the mountains are
carried away;"
The
word /tamasat/ is derived from /tams/ which means 'to efface' or 'to obliterate
(to destroy all trace of )', may refer to the extinction of the stars or
their dissolution, but the first rendition is more fitting. A similar meaning
is found in Sura Takwir, No. 81. verse 2: "And
when the stars darken;".
The
word /nasafat/ is derived from /nasf/ which
originally means 'to winnow as chaff, the
act of winnowing', but here, it means: 'to reduce the mountains to powder and scatter them abroad'.
In
general, from many verses of the Holy Qur'an it is understood that, at last,
this physical world will end with some series of extremely horrible events, and
its regularity will be terribly destroyed. Then the spiritual world will be
substituted by a new order.
The
events are so horrible and amazing that no single word or expression can describe
them. Are the mountains which are reduced to powder and scattered abroad, and
like events, describable?
Some
commentators have said that, in comparison with these events, the greatest
earthquakes Man has ever seen are like tiny firecrackers, which little boys
explode for fun, and liken these horrifying events with the greatest atomic
bombs.
At
any rate, these meanings, in the Holy Qur'an, indicate the great difference
between the physical world and the spiritual world.
Then,
in the following verse, one of the occurrences at the gathering place, on the
Day of Judgment, is defined:
"And when the prophets are
called unto their time appointed (for witness)".
The
theme of this verse and that of Sura A'raf,
No. 7, verse6 are similar: "Then shall We question those to whom Our Message was sent and those by
whom We sent it."
And
then it adds: "For what Day is
this (portent) deferred?"
"For the Day of Sorting out
(right from wrong)."
This
question, and its answer, shows the greatness of that Day, and what a clear and
meaningful answer this is!: "For the Day
of Sorting out". It is the
Day of sorting out right from wrong, believers from unbelievers, good-doers
from evildoers, and the Day of Judgment for all.
And
then: "What do you know about the Day of
Sorting out?"
What
are we looking for when the Prophet (p.b.u.h.),
having such extensive and broad knowledge and keen insight; by which he was
able to discover the secrets of that mysterious world, could not deeply
appreciate all the dimensions of that Day?
As
it was repeatedly mentioned before, it is impossible for us, prisoners in this
world of a cage, to understand all the great secrets of the Hereafter; we may
only see its silhouette, but we believe in it.
Then,
the warning: "Ah woe, that Day, to the
Rejecters of Truth."
The
term /wayl/ 'woe' is interpreted as 'punishment with destruction, any
punishment, or, a site in Hell full of torment'. This word is usually said
to anyone or anything for whom or that which falls into misfortune and on whom
one does not wish Allah's mercy to
descend and, here, it is used for the painful fate of the rejecters on that
Day.
'The rejecters of Truth' are those who do not believe
in the Hereafter. And we know that those who reject the Day of Judgment and the
Day of Reckoning easily commit any sin or corruption. But a firm belief in the
reality of that Day demands virtue and responsibility in human beings.
Contents of the Oaths:
In
the above verses, it swears to the winds and hurricanes. This is because they
have an important structural role in nature: they move the clouds and take them
over dead lands, pouring down rain, and then scattering them.
Winds
scatter seeds far and wide, here and there, and produce forests. They fertilize
many of the plants and flowers. They change the weather, hot and cold, or
moderate it. They clear the air of epidemics: they take the fresh air from
green fields and bring it into cities to substitute its polluted one. They cause
the seas to undulate and oxygenate the water, which is essential to the
developing processes of living creatures in the seas. Surely, winds and breezes
are beneficial to man in the world.
Some
other verses of the above group swear to angels by which Allah's Messages and revelations, that cherish virtue and humanity,
were gradually conveyed to the prophets' hearts like the winds that come gently
as harbingers with blessings of rain and fertility. Winds are in the physical
world while angels are in the spiritual world. Then Allah's oaths are to both
the physical cherishers and the spiritual ones.
It
is interesting to note that all the oaths are for the belief that His promise
of mercy and justice in the Hereafter, 'the Day of Sorting out', is
indeed true.
