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The Message of the Quran

Muhammad Asad

 

AL-ZALZALAH (THE EARTHQUAKE)

THE NINETY-NINTH SURAH
Total Verses: 8
PERIOD UNCERTAIN

 

Introduction

 

MOST PROBABLY revealed in the early part of the Medina period (itqan), although some authorities regard it as a Meccan revelation.

 

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:

 

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:

 

(1) WHEN THE EARTH quakes with her [last] mighty quaking,

 

(2) and [when] the earth yields up her burdens, 1

 

(3) and man cries out, "What has happened to her?" -

 

(4) on that Day will she recount all her tidings,

 

(5) as thy Sustainer will have inspired her to do! 2

 

(6) On that Day will all men come forward, cut off from one another, 3 to be shown their [past] deeds.

 

(7) And so, he who shall have done an atom's weight of good, shall behold it;

 

(8) and he who shall have done an atom's weight of evil, shall behold it.

 

 

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1 I.e., all that was hitherto hidden in it, including the bodies- or the remnants - of the dead.

 

2 I.e., on the Day of Judgment the earth will bear witness, as it were, to all that has ever been done by man: an explanation given by the Prophet, according to a Tradition on the authority of Abu Hurayrah (quoted by Ibn Hanbal and Tirmidhi).

 

3 Lit., ''as separate entities" (ashtatan). Cf. 6:94 - "And now, indeed, you have come unto Us in a lonely state, even as We created you in the first instance": thus stressing the individual, untransferable responsibility of every human being.

 

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