Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 82 Al-Infitar, Ayat 1-19

اِذَا السَّمَآءُ انْفَطَرَتۡۙ‏ ﴿82:1﴾ وَاِذَا الۡكَوَاكِبُ انْتَثَرَتۡۙ‏ ﴿82:2﴾ وَاِذَا الۡبِحَارُ فُجِّرَتۡۙ‏ ﴿82:3﴾ وَاِذَا الۡقُبُوۡرُ بُعۡثِرَتۡۙ‏ ﴿82:4﴾ عَلِمَتۡ نَفۡسٌ مَّا قَدَّمَتۡ وَاَخَّرَتۡؕ‏ ﴿82:5﴾ يٰۤاَيُّهَا الۡاِنۡسَانُ مَا غَرَّكَ بِرَبِّكَ الۡكَرِيۡمِۙ‏ ﴿82:6﴾ الَّذِىۡ خَلَقَكَ فَسَوّٰٮكَ فَعَدَلَـكَۙ‏ ﴿82:7﴾ فِىۡۤ اَىِّ صُوۡرَةٍ مَّا شَآءَ رَكَّبَكَؕ‏ ﴿82:8﴾ كَلَّا بَلۡ تُكَذِّبُوۡنَ بِالدِّيۡنِۙ‏ ﴿82:9﴾ وَاِنَّ عَلَيۡكُمۡ لَحٰـفِظِيۡنَۙ‏ ﴿82:10﴾ كِرَامًا كَاتِبِيۡنَۙ‏ ﴿82:11﴾ يَعۡلَمُوۡنَ مَا تَفۡعَلُوۡنَ‏ ﴿82:12﴾ اِنَّ الۡاَبۡرَارَ لَفِىۡ نَعِيۡمٍۚ‏ ﴿82:13﴾ وَاِنَّ الۡفُجَّارَ لَفِىۡ جَحِيۡمٍ ۚۖ‏ ﴿82:14﴾ يَّصۡلَوۡنَهَا يَوۡمَ الدِّيۡنِ‏ ﴿82:15﴾ وَمَا هُمۡ عَنۡهَا بِغَآئِبِيۡنَؕ‏ ﴿82:16﴾ وَمَاۤ اَدۡرٰٮكَ مَا يَوۡمُ الدِّيۡنِۙ‏ ﴿82:17﴾ ثُمَّ مَاۤ اَدۡرٰٮكَ مَا يَوۡمُ الدِّيۡنِؕ‏ ﴿82:18﴾ يَوۡمَ لَا تَمۡلِكُ نَفۡسٌ لِّنَفۡسٍ شَيۡـئًا​ ؕ وَالۡاَمۡرُ يَوۡمَـئِذٍ لِّلَّهِ‏ ﴿82:19﴾

(82:1) When the heaven is split asunder,1 (82:2) when the stars are scattered, (82:3) when the seas are made to burst forth, (82:4) and when graves are laid open,2 (82:5) everyone shall know all his deeds, both the earlier and the later.3 (82:6) O man! What has deceived you about your generous Lord (82:7) Who created you, shaped you, and made you well-proportioned, (82:8) and set you in whatever form He pleased?4 (82:9) No indeed;5 (the fact is that) you deny the Reckoning,6 declaring it a lie; (82:10) you do so the while there are watchers over you; (82:11) noble scribes, (82:12) who know what you do.7 (82:13) Surely the virtuous shall be in Bliss, (82:14) and the wicked shall be in the Blazing Fire. (82:15) They shall enter it on the Day of Recompense (82:16) and then shall never come out of it. (82:17) What do you know what the Day of Recompense is? (82:18) Again, what do you know what the Day of Recompense is? (82:19) It is the Day when no one shall have the power to do anything for another,8 and all command shall be Allah's.

Notes

1. In Surah At-Takwir it has been said: When the oceans are set ablaze, and here: When the oceans are torn apart. When the two verses are read together, and this fact is also kept in view that even according to the Quran a terrible earthquake will occur on the Resurrection Day, which will shake up the entire earth all at once, the state of the splitting of the oceans and their being set ablaze, seems to be as follows: first, because of the terrible convulsion, the bottom of the oceans will split asunder and their water will start sinking into the interior of the earth where an intensely hot lava is constantly boiling up. Coming into contact with the lava, water will dissolve into its two constituent parts, oxygen which helps combustion, and hydrogen, which is itself combustible. Thus, in the process of dissolution and combustion, a chain reaction will start, which will set all the oceans of the world ablaze. This is our conjecture, the correct knowledge is only with Allah.

2. In the first three verses, the first stage of the Resurrection has been mentioned and in this verse the second stage is being described. Opening of the graves implies resurrection of the dead.

3. The words ma qaddamat wa akhkharat can have several meanings and all are implied here:

(1) Ma qaddamat is the good or evil act which man has sent forward, and ma akhkharat is what he refrained from doing. Thus, these Arabic words correspond to the acts of commission and omission in one’s life.

(2) Ma qaddamat is what one did earlier and ma akhkharat what one did later; i.e. the whole life-work of man will appear before him date-wise and in proper sequence.

(3) Whatever good and evil deeds a man did in his life is ma qaddamat and whatever effects and influences of his acts he left behind for human society is ma akhkharat.

4. That is, in the first place, the bounty and favor of your Beneficent Sustainer required that you should have acknowledged his bounties and become an obedient servant and should have felt shy of disobeying Him, but you were deluded into thinking that you have become whatever you are by your own effort, and you never thought that you should acknowledge that favor of Him Who gave you life. Secondly, it is your Lord’s bounty and kindness that you can freely do whatever you like in the world and it never so happens that whenever you happen to commit an error, He should punish you with paralysis, or blind your eyes, or cause lightning to strike you. But you took His bountifulness for weakness and were beguiled into thinking that the kingdom of your God was devoid of justice

5. That is, there is no reasonable ground for you to be deluded. Your own physical existence itself tells that you did not come into being by yourself; your parents also did not make you. Man also did not come about as a result of the elements combining together by themselves accidentally; but a Wise and Powerful God has composed you into this perfect human shape and form. There are other kinds of animals in the world compared with which your excellent form and structure and your superior powers and faculties stand out in sharp contrast. Reason demanded that in view of all this you should have submitted gratefully and should never have dared commit disobedience of your beneficent Sustainer. You also know that your Lord and Sustainer is not only Compassionate and Bountiful but Almighty and Omnipotent as well. When an earthquake, cyclone or flood occurs by His command, all your devices and measures fail to be effective. You also know that your Lord and Sustainer is not ignorant and foolish but Wise and Knowing, and the necessary demand of wisdom and knowledge is that whoever is given intellect should also be held responsible for his acts; whoever is given powers should also be held accountable as to how he used those powers; and whoever is given the choice to do good or evil on his own responsibility, should also be rewarded for his good act and punished for his evil act. All these truths are clearly and plainly known to you; therefore, you cannot say that there exists a reasonable ground for you to be deluded concerning your Lord. Your own nature is sufficient evidence that the beneficence of the Master should never cause the servant to be fearless of Him, and be involved in the misunderstanding that he may do whatever he pleases, no one can harm him in any way.

6. That is, you have not been deluded and beguiled by any good reason but by your foolish concept that there is going to be no meting out of rewards and punishments after the life of this world. It is this wrong and baseless concept which has made you heedless of God, fearless of His justice and irresponsible in your moral attitude.

7. That is, whether you deny the meting out of rewards and punishments, belie it, or mock it, the reality cannot change. The reality is: that your Lord has not left you to your self in the world, but has appointed over each one of you honest and upright guardians, who are recording objectively and faithfully all your good and evil acts, and none of your acts is hidden from them, whether you commit it in darkness, or in private, or in far off jungles, or in secret when you are fully satisfied that whatever you have done has remained hidden from human eye. For these guardian angels Allah has used the words kiram-an katibin, i.e. writers who are honorable and noble They are neither attached in personal love with somebody, nor are inimical to anybody, so that they would prepare a fictitious record on the basis of their favoring one man and un-favoring another unduly. They are neither dishonest that without being present on duty they would make wrong entries by themselves; nor are they bribable so that they would take bribes and make false reports in favor of or against somebody. They are far above these moral weaknesses. Therefore, both the good and the bad people should be fully satisfied that each man’s good acts will be recorded without any omission, and no one will have an evil act recorded in his account which he has not done. Then the second quality that has been mentioned of these angels is: They know whatever you do. That is, they are not like the secret, intelligence agencies of the world, from which, despite all their search and scrutiny, many things remain hidden. They are fully aware of everyone's deeds. They accompany every person, at all places, under all conditions, in such a way that he himself does not know that someone is watching him, and they also know with what intention has somebody done a certain thing. Therefore the record prepared by them is a complete record in which nothing has been left un-recorded. About this very thing it has been said in (Surah Al-Kahf, Ayat 49): Woe to us! What sort of a book it is, it has left nothing unrecorded of our doings, small or great. They will see before them everything, whatever they had done.

8. That is, no one there will have the power to save anyone from suffering the consequences of his deeds; no one there will be so influential, strong, or such a favorite with Allah that he should behave stubbornly in the divine court and say: Such and such a one is a close relative or associate of mine; he will have to be forgiven, no matter what evils He might have committed in the world.