Surah Al-Infitar is a Meccan Surah with nineteen verse. It is derived from the word infatarat in the first verse. Infitar means “to cleave or split asunder” thereby implying that it is the Surah in which the splitting asunder of the sky has been mentioned.
This Surah and the Surah At-Takwir closely resemble each other in their subject matter. This shows that both were sent down in about the same period.
Its theme is the Hereafter. The Prophet pbuh said:
“The one who wants that he should see the Resurrection Day as one would see it with one’s eyes, should read Surah At-Takwir, Surah Al-Infitar and Surah Al-Inshiqaq.”
(Ahmed, Tirmidhi)
In this Surah first the Resurrection Day has been described and it is said that when it occurs, every person will see whatever he has done in the world. After this, man has been asked to ponder the question: “O man, what has deluded you into thinking that the God, Who brought you into being and by Whose favor and bounty you possess the finest body, limbs and features among all creatures, is only bountiful and not just?
His being bountiful and generous does not mean that man should become fearless of His justice. Then, man has been warned, so as to say: “Do not remain involved in any misunderstanding. Your complete record is being prepared. There are trustworthy writers who are writing down whatever you do.”
In conclusion, it has been forcefully stated that the Day of Resurrection will surely take place when the righteous shall enjoy every kind of bliss in Paradise and the wicked shall be punished in Hell. On that day no one shall avail anyone anything. All powers of judgment shall be with Allah.
The Disturbance in Order and Symmetry
In the beginning of this Surah, we are informed about a part of the horrible events that occur, throughout the world immediately before the Day of Judgment, which is the first stage of Resurrection. The present phenomenal order will not last for ever. The constellations will lose their regularity and the order of this world will be disturbed. All stars and planets in the sky, revolving around special points, will leave their routine and hitting each other, burst violently. All will be destroyed before the new Spiritual World is established.
When the sky is split open…
Fatara means to tear something wide open or tearing something across its length. This alludes to the sky being severely damaged across the horizon with a long tear when the Day of Judgment comes. In classical Arabic this word is used for sheets of cloth and there is a parallel in imagery between sheets of cloth and the sky which is like a tent over us. It is worth remembering that the Quran is not speaking to us in scientific explanations, but through human experience and what the eye sees. The image depicted here is that of a canopy over us that has a tear in it. Imagine a tent with numerous lamps hung up in it. If the tent rips, the lamps will fall and collapse.
And when the stars have fallen and scattered…
Intathara is when something falls due to a sudden jerk, for example, if you place marbles on a sheet and then give the sheet a jerk, the marbles will fall off. The word kawkab is a large star; a brilliant star firmly fixed that the Arabs used for navigation and the word is also used for planets. So kawkab highlights the magnitude and the fact that stars/planets are firm fixtures of the night sky. Even these brilliant heavenly bodies will fall off and scatter in Akhirah.
This is an admonishment to man, in relation to the destruction of this phenomenal world, in order for him not to consider it immortal or not to be attached to it and avoid committing numerous sins for its sake.
When the oceans are made to explode…
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. And the correct real knowledge is only with Allah.
The oceans will explode which means they do not stay where they are supposed to within their boundaries and rips out of place like a tsunami. It goes further than its boundaries in a violent way, just like the evil oppressive violent sinner transgresses the boundaries set for man.
And when the graves are turned upside down…
This is the second stage of Resurrection when the graves will be turned upside down to bring out its contents. Bu’thirat here means to dig into something and turn it upside down to pull out what you want from a collection of other things. For example, emptying out a suitcase to look for a key. Allah gives this image for graves and informs that they will be manipulated to bring out its contents which will be man who is yanked out.
Now Allah says that when previously mentioned incidents of Akhirah take place, then every soul shall know what it has sent before (qaddamat) and held back (akharat).
The words qaddamat and akharat can have several meanings and all are implied here:
(1) Qaddamat is the good or evil act which man has sent forward, and akharat is what he refrained from doing. Thus, these Arabic words correspond to the acts of commission and omission in one’s life.
(2) Qaddamat is what one did earlier and akharat 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 qaddamat and whatever effects and influences of his acts he left behind for human society is akharat.
In general on that Day, everything will be obvious to all and the curtains of arrogance and pride will be removed then the full reality will be manifested.
Man will see his deeds altogether, irrespective of good or evil, and understands what sort of deeds he had sent forth and what kind of deeds, together with their effects, remained in the world, whose result reached him later after his death; such as, acts of charity done, any remaining voluntary alms and or pious foundations and endowments, or the books and works he had left behind; whether with good intention or evil ones, of which other persons used after him, and, also the good or bad habits that remain among societies for generations.
O man! What deluded You actually….?
In this verse Allah asks man that O man! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Most Generous? It is a graphic and embarrassing style in which man is asked to ponder at it if he has any sense of deceny. The phrase ‘ya ayuhal insanu’ is very difficult to translate into English. It contains much emotion, pain and warning in it, it’s like when you feel sorry for someone who ignores your advice and heads down the wrong path. Allah turns to each and every human with sorrow and sympathy and tries to guide them towards the right course.
The word insan comes from multiple roots one of which is nasiya which means to forget and man is the creature that forgets. Man is continuously forgetful of his role of being an obedient slave of Allah. So we have forgotten the purpose for which we were put on this earth and Allah calls us by this name to remind us of our forgetfulness.
Man is mentioned for the sake of all humanity, which is a privilege of his over all other creatures in the world. Then he is in the presence of Allah, Who is both Lord and Gracious. Because of His Lordship He supports man and undertakes his training and improvement; and because of His Graciousness, He bestows innumerable material and spiritual blessings on him without expecting repayment or reward. He even overlooks his mistakes and forgives him. Is it appropriate for this noble creature to be bold and disgraceful to such a great Lord?
The term gharaka means ‘negligence in wakefulness’ or in other words, negligence where man should not be neglectful. Certainly, Allah is Great, the Powerful, Who is so generous, but how humble and weak is man and yet so bold to commit disobedience to Him although he lives in His protection and undergo changes of life in the expanse of His kindness. Allah who out of his grace has given man so much and then when man loses his path, asks him in a loving way of what it was that distanced man from his Gracious Lord? Was it the love of money, family or pathetic desires?
Now Allah says that there is no reasonable ground for man to be deluded. His own physical existence itself tells that he did not come into being by himself. 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 him into this perfect human shape and form.
Then to awaken the neglectful man, in four steps it points to a part of Allah’s favor and says:
“Who created you and fashioned you, and proportioned you in perfection. In whatever form He pleased, He constituted you.”
Thus, the Quran mentions four great stages in the Creation of man i.e. the creation itself, the fashioning of him, his proportion afterward, and, finally, the constitution of man.
1. Creation…
The first stage in the creation of man is from the lowly life-germ in the darkness of the mother’s womb.
2. Fashioning…
The second stage is his fashioning in a just form and with appropriate limbs in an astonishing regular formation. Eyes, ears, heart, blood vessels, and other organs of the body are created so surprisingly that if man thinks about their structures and regularities and understands Allah’s Beneficence to him, each of them will be illustrated as a world of knowledge and power that Allah granted man, because of His Favor and Graciousness.
3. Proportioning…
The third stage is proportioning man and adjusting his faculties as well as his organs and then their internal coordinations and relations with each other. The parts of man’s body are created mainly symmetrically: hands, feet, eyes, ears, some bones, vessels and muscles are in pairs on both sides of the body.
4. Constitution…
Finally the formation and constitution of man in comparison with other living creatures comes forth. Comparing him with them, he has well-balanced features, good character and an awakened nature, which is alert and capable of accepting any training and knowledge.
In every stage and at every moment man has been receiving abundant blessings from Allah, and it was not meant to be neglectfully arrogant but by accepting His Lordship, obey Him!
Now Allah continues that man denies the Judgment Day that one day he has to present himself for what he earned. Neither Allah’s generosity nor His kindness is the origin of man’s carelessness, but the lack of belief in the Day of Judgment is the main cause for his arrogance. Verily, when we seek deep into the souls of most neglectful arrogant ones we find doubt and denial of the Hereafter within them, while all their other words and deeds are mere excuses. That is why the more the basis of faith and belief in the Resurrection, in those hearts, are strengthened, the less this negligence and carelessness will remain there.
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 (angels), 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 bas 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 far above any 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.
Concluding the previous discussion about recording the deeds of men by the angels, the following verses speak about the account of man on the Day of Judgement and the end of the righteous and the wicked.
Allah says that there is no doubt about it that those who are righteous and have good things written about them will be in bliss. The word na’eem means continuous blessings and it indicates that the righteous are already in bliss in this dunia even through Allah’s guidance. Furthermore, this bliss will only be multiplied in the future in the Akhirah. So right now this blessing is in the form of guidance and in the hereafter it will be in the form of being under Allah’s shade and through having all that they desire and through the gifts and blessings that will be offered to them in Jannah.
This is important as the disbeliever who insults and abuses the Muslim is informed that the Muslims are already in bliss. This is amazing because the righteous may be going through hardship by the disbelievers but they are in fact in ease because Allah has expanded their hearts. Every moment of pain the companions went through elevated their status and even these pains are called bliss.
After the blessed people enter the Paradise, now Allah turns to the wicked ones, the Fujaar. Allah says indeed the wicked shall be in the blazing fire.
The fujaar are those who explode with sin and do not care of the consequences in their rebellion of Allah, crossing all the limits. The fujaar are those who are bent upon rebellion and have decided and made a commitment that this is their life in opposition to Allah. Thus, Allah has made a commitment to place them in Jaheem which is the blazing fire. The fire that is like the stare of the hungry lion about to attack its prey.
These Fujaar will enter into this blazing fire in Akhirah. The word yaslaw means they will stumble and trip upon the Day of Judgement. It comes from the word salyun which is used when you trip into something or you go somewhere where you don’t want to go but you go anyway reluctantly. So, literally this can be taken to mean that man will cast himself into the fire. Of all the different words used in Arabic for the word entrance, salyun is the only one specifically used for fire.
It is notable that the word deen has appeared before in this surah where man has denied and lied against the deen, however, the day of deen is coming and on that day they will not be able to lie against it and will pay for it. Thus, man should take care of his deen (portion of Islam) now otherwise the portion of that Day will take him.
The fujaar will not be away from the stare of jaheem for a single moment ever. When something frightening stares at you, your first instinct is to avoid eye contact, yet, on that day there will be nowhere man can turn to avoid it. This verse depicts that the blazing fire of Hell never fades, and they will never escape it even for a moment.
Finally it is asked what will make you know what the Day of Recompense is? The repetition of the question intensifies the horror of the one asking. This is Allah who is asking the question and this is a manifestation of the anger and horror to be injected into the one who denies. The way Allah asks this is terrifying, asking twice, ‘Do you have any clue about the Day of Recompense?’
The word adraaka means to figure something out by looking at evidence and investigating. Allah is asking what man will look around for to give him even a clue of how horrifying that day will be when what you did in this life and what you left behind will be shown to you and when you will get your portion of justice.
It is the Day when no person shall have power to do anything for another and the Decision that day will be entirely with Allah. The will be the day when man will not have any authority or dominion over any other person. Not even his own family. Even if you wanted to have authority, you wouldn’t be able to. Even if you felt you had enough good deeds and wanted to look out for someone else on that day, you would have no authority to. On that Day the decision and command will belong to Allah alone and no one will be able to rely on anyone else. The ownership is totally Allah’s and is so perfected that all people look up to complete consonant with Allah’s Universal Will, the Absolute Command, on everything and more evident than ever, thenceforward will be wholly with Allah.
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