Introduction and Summary

This is the seventh and last Surah of the series devoted to Revelation and hereafter, as explained in the introduction to Surah 50.

It belongs to early Makkan period, with the possible exception of one or two verses.

the theme is the certainty of the day of Judgement and its adjustment of true Values (56:1-56); Allah's Power, Goodness and Glory (56:57-74); and the truth of Revelation (56:75-96).

Summary- When the Day of Judgement comes, the world as we know it will be shaken to its foundation, and men shall be sorted out into three sorts; those nearest to Allah, in exalted Misery (56:1-56, and C. 234).

Surely the power and Goodness of Allah, of which Revelation is a Sign, should lead man to accept the Message and glorify Him (56:57-96) and C. 235).

C.236 The running Commentary, in Rhythmic Prose

(56:1-56)

The Event Inevitable is the Day

Of Judgement: the world as we know it

Will be shaken to its depths, and its place

Will be taken by a world made new,

Where Good will be sorted out from Evil.

In Dignity and Bliss will the Good find Fulfilment:

Both those Nearest to the Throne of Allah,

And those who earned, by faith and good life,

The title, Companions of the Right Hand.

Who can tell of the Misery in which

The Companions of the Left Hand will live?

They will be as it were in a fierce blast

Of Fire; their drink but boiling water;

Their shade that of Black Smoke that chokes

Their lungs-ever burning with hunger and thirst,

Of the Life in Death to which Evil leads.

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

C5222. The Event Inevitable is the Hour of Judgment.

People may doubt now whether it will come. But when it comes, as it will come, suddenly upon them, it will come with such tremendous reality that it will be burnt deep into the experience of every soul. No one can then be deceived or entertain false notions about it.

C5223. There will be a sorting out of Good and Evil. Or rather, (verse 7 below), there will be three main classes.

- Among the Good there will be the specially exalted class, those nearest to Allah (muqarrabun, 56:11-26),

- and the righteous people generally, called the Companions of the Right Hand (Ashab-ul-maimana, 56:27-40).

- And there will be those in agony, the Companions of the Left Hand (Ashab-ul-mash-ama, 56:41-56).

Many who were high and mighty in this life will be brought low for their sins, and many who were lowly but virtuous will be exalted to various ranks and degrees. The old landmarks will be lost in the inner world, as they will be in the outer world.

C5224. The old physical world will disappear in the New Creation.

C5225. See n. 5223 above.

C5226. Foremost (in Faith)":

there are two meanings, and both are implied Those who have reached the highest degree in spiritual understanding, such as the great prophets and teachers of mankind, will also take precedence in the Hereafter.

Those who are the first in time-the quickest and readiest-to accept Allah's Message-will have the first place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Verses 8, 9 and 10 mention the three main categories or classifications after Judgment. In the subsequent verses their happiness or misery are described. This category, Foremost in Faith, is nearest to Allah.

C5227. See n. 5223 above.

Nearness to Allah is the test of the highest Bliss. (R).

C5228. Of great Prophets and Teachers there were many before the time of the holy Prophet Muhammad. As he was the last of the Prophets, he and the great Teachers under his Dispensation will be comparatively fewer in number, but their teaching is the sum and flower of all mankind's spiritual experience.

C5229. Cf. 15:47; 37:44, 52:20, and 36:56. {Eds.}

C5230. But they will not be separate each in his own corner. They will face each other. For they are all one, and their mutual society will be part of their Bliss.

C5231. Cf. 52:24, and n.5058.

The youth and freshness with which the attendants will serve is a symbol of true service such as we may expect in the next world. That freshness will be perpetual, and not subject to any moods, or chances, or changes.

C5232. The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul are typified by all that is best in the feasts in this imperfect world, but there will be none of the disadvantages incident to such feasts in this world, such as satiety, aches, excess, a sense of exhaustion, or loss of senses, etc. Cf. 37:47, and n. 4063.

A goblet is a bowl without handles;

a beaker has a "lip" and a stem;

"cup" is a general term.

C5233. Cf. 44:54, and n. 4729.

The companionship of Beauty and Grace is one of the highest pleasures of life. In this bodily life it takes bodily form. In the higher life it takes a higher form. (R).

C5234. Cf. 52:24, where this description is applied to the youths who serve. See also n. 5058 there.

In 56:78 below the adjective maknun is applied to the Quran, "the well guarded Book".

C5235. Cf. 52:23.

Apart from physical ills worldly feasts or delights are apt to suffer from vain or frivolous discourse, idle boasting, foolish flattery, or phrases pointed with secret venom or moral mischief. The negation of these from spiritual Bliss follows as a matter of course, but it is specially insisted on to guard against the perversities of human nature, which likes to read ill into the best that can be put in words.

C5236. Qil is best translated "saying", rather than "word". For the saying is an act, a thought, a fact, which may be embodied in a word, but which goes far beyond the word. The "Peace of Allah" is an atmosphere which sums up Heaven even better than "Bliss".

C5237. Lote-trees: see 34:16 n. 3814. (R).

C5238. Talh: some understand by this the plantain or banana tree, of which the fruit is borne in bunches, one tier above another; but the banana tree does not grow in Arabia and its ordinary Arabic name is Mauz; perhaps it is better to understand a special kind of Acacia tree, which flowers profusely, the flowers appearing in tiers one above another.

C5239. As it is not like earthly fruit, its season is not limited, nor is there any prohibition by law or custom or circumstance as to when or how it is to be consumed. (R).

C5240. The pronoun in Arabic is in the feminine gender.

It is made clear that these maidens for heavenly society will be of special creation,-of virginal purity, grace, and beauty, inspiring and inspired by love, with the question of time and age eliminated. Thus every person among the righteous will have the Bliss of Heaven and the peace of Allah.

Section II

C5241. This class-the righteous-will be a large company in Heaven, belonging to all the ages of the world. Cf. n. 5228 to 56:13 above.

Such is the unbounded Bounty of Allah.

C5242. Notice the parallelism in the contrast between those in Bliss and those in Misery. The description in each case pursues the idea of contrast. The fierce Blast of Fire and the Boiling Water are in contrast to the happy Lote-tree and the flowers and fruits in verses 28-29 above.

C5243. Even the Shades get a different quality in the Abode of Misery: shades of black smoke in contrast to the cool and refreshing long extended shades of trees by brooks in verses 30-31 above.

C5244. Cf. 34:34, and 43:23.

We must read verses 45-46 together. They had wealth and the good things of life, but they used them in self-indulgence and shameless crime, and now they are in humiliation.

C5244a. Wickedness supreme: i.e. their associating others with Allah in His divinity. [eds.]

C5245. Their want of belief and ridicule of Allah's Message contrasts with the stern reality which they see around them now.

C5246. In 26:38 (see n. 3159) the phrase "a day well-known" is used for a solemn day of festival, when the multitude of people gather together.

The Day of Judgment is such a day in the supreme sense of the word.

C5247. This is the Cursed Tree mentioned in 17:60, where see n. 2250

Cf. also 37:62, n. 4072; and 44:43-46 and n. 4722.

C.235 The running Commentary, in Rhythmic Prose

(56:57-96)

Learn you then to witness the Truth in your lives.

Your own creation and growth, the seeds

That ye sow in the ground, the Circuit of Water

Through streams, rivers, and seas, to vapour,

Clouds, and rain that feeds the streams,

The Fire that stands as an emblem of Life

And Light-all point to your Lord Supreme.

His Revelation conveys the same Message

To the pure in heart. Will ye receive it

And live, assured of the truth of the Hereafter?

Glory and Praise to Allah the Beneficent,

Supreme to Justice, Mercy, and Truth!

C5249. Man is apt to forget his Creator, and even the fact that he, man, is a created being. The seed of his body, out of which his physical life starts, is not created by man, but by Allah in the process of the unfoldment of the world. Why will not man recognise and bear witness of this fact by a life of obedience to Allah's Law?

C5250. Just as Allah has created this life that we see, so He has decreed that Death should be the common lot of all of us. Surely, if He can thus give life and death, as we see it, why should we refuse to believe that He can give us other forms when this life is over?

The Future Life, though indicated by what we know now, is to be on a wholly different plane. (R).

C5251. Having appealed to our own nature within us, He appeals now to the external nature around us, which should be evidence to us

- of His loving care for us, and

- of its being due to causes other than those which we produce and control.

Three examples are given :

- the seed which we sow in the soil; it is Allah's processes in nature, which make it grow;

- the water which we drink; it is Allah's processes in nature, that send it down from the clouds as rain, and distribute it through springs and rivers:

- the fire which we strike; it is again a proof of Allah's Plan and Wisdom in nature.

C5252. The cultivator contracts debts for seed and gives labour for ploughing, sowing, watering, and weeding, in the hope of reaping a harvest.

Should he not give thanks to Allah when his harvest is in?

C5253. The mystery of the two streams of water, one sweet and the other salt, constantly mingling, and yet always separate, is referred to more than once.

The never-ending circuit is established by streams and rivers mingling with the ocean, the ocean sending forth mists and steam through a process of evaporation which forms clouds, and the clouds by condensation pouring forth rain to feed the streams and rivers again: see notes 3111-2 to 25:53, and n. 5185 to 55:19, and the further references given there.

C5254. The relation of Fire to Trees is intimate. In nearly all the fire that we burn, the fuel is derived from the wood of trees. Even mineral coal is nothing but the wood of prehistoric forests petrified under the earth through geological ages. Fire produced out of green trees is referred to in 36:80; and n. 4026 there gives instances.

C5255. Fire is a fit memorial of Allah's handiwork in nature. It is also an emblem of man’s earliest civilization. It can stand as a symbol of physical comfort and convenience to man, of the source of spiritual light, and also of the warning to Evil about the destruction.

In the same way the sower’s seed has a symbolical meaning in the preaching of the Message: see 48:29, and n. 4917:

and the Rain and the Streams of Water have a symbolical meaning; see notes 2404-5 to 18:60.

C5256. Cf. 20:10 and n. 2541, where the mystic meaning of the Fire which Moses saw in the desert is explained.

Even ordinarily, a fire in a desert is a sign of human habitation; by following it you may get human society and human comfort.

A fire, or light, or beacon in many places directs a traveler or the way. Lighthouses at sea and beacons in modem aerodromes serve the same purpose for mariners and airmen.

Another parable about fire will be found in 2:17-18, and n. 38.

C5257. Seeing all these Signs in nature man must turn to Allah and do His Will.

Section III

C5258. The setting of the Stars; a number of mystic meanings are attached. Here are three.

- Cf. 53:1 and n. 5085; the setting of a glorious star is a symbol of humility before the power, beauty, and goodness of Allah.

- It may refer to the extinction of the stars at the Day of Judgement, betokening the establishment of Allah's Justice and the Truth of His Revelation.

- What is bright or beautiful to our senses may disappear from our ken within a few hours, even though its own existence may continue. All light is relative except the Light of Allah.

C5259. The glory of the firmament as it exists, and the wonder of its passing away, are both evidence, to the discerning mind, of the Future which Allah has prepared, but this evidence can only be effective if men but knew, i.e.., turned their earnest attention to it.

C5260. Your attention is drawn to the momentous issues of the Future by the Quran . It is a Revelation described by four characteristics.

- It is most honourable, karim, which implies, besides the fact that it is worthy of receiving honour, that it confers great favours on those who receive it.

- It is well-guarded, maknun; precious in itself, and well- preserved in its purity; see n. 5234 to 56:23; see also 15:9, and n. 1944.

- None but the clean shall touch it,-dean in body, mind, thought, intention, and soul; only such can achieve real contact with its full meaning.

- It is a Revelation from the Lord of the Worlds, and therefore universal for all.

C5261. The Message being such as is described in the last note, how can any one ignore it or treat it with contempt or refuse to allow it to improve his life?

C5262. The worst indictment of an enemy of Revelation would be that he should make Falsehood a source of filthy lucre for himself, or that he should let his precious life be corrupted by such unholy occupation.

C5263. There is a hiatus after "why do ye not?"-and two parenthetical clauses,-after which the clause "why do ye not?" is resumed again in verse 86 below, with its complement in verse 87. It is permissible to the translator to add some such word as "intervene" here, to make the translation run smoothly.

C5264. The dying man's friends, relatives, and companions may be sitting round him and quite close to him in his last moments, but Allah is nearer still at all times for He is nearer than the man's own jugular vein (50:16), and one of Allah's own titles is "Ever Near" (34:50).

C5265. These words resume the sentence begun at verse 83 above and interrupted by the two parenthetical clauses in verses 84 and 85. See n. 5263 above.

C5266. The sentence may now be briefly paraphrased. 'If you disbelieve in Revelation and a future Judgment, and claim to do what you like and be independent of Allah, how is it you cannot call back a dying man's soul to his body when all of you congregate round him at his death-bed? But you are not independent of Judgment. There is a Day of Account, when you will have to be judged by your deeds in this life.'

C5267. See above. 56:11-26 and notes.

C5268. Rayhan: sweet-smelling plants, as in 55:12. Here used as an indication of Satisfaction and Delight.

C5269. See above, 56:27-38 and notes.

C5270. In 56:26 above the salutation of "Peace, Peace!" is addressed to those Nearest to Allah. Here we learn that it is also addressed to the Companions of the Right Hand. Both are in Gardens of Bliss; only the former have a higher Dignity than the latter.

C5271. Cf. above, 56:51-55.

C5272. "The assurance of the Hereafter" is one of the strongest features of Faith. For without it the apparent inequalities and injustices of this Life cannot be satisfactorily explained.

C5273. Cf. 56:74 above.

That was the conclusion of the argument about the Future from the examples of Allah's goodness in nature. Now we have the conclusion of the same argument from Allah's revelation through His inspired Messengers.

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