Surah Az-Zalzala is a Meccan Surah with eigth verses. Az-Zalzala means The Earthquake. The name of this Surah is derived from the word zilzal in the first verse.
There’s a difference of opinion over this Surah to be Makki or Madini, but majority follow the Meccan view. From its theme and style it clearly indiciates that it must have been sent down in the earliest stage at Makkah when the fundamental principles and beliefs of Islam were being presented before the people in a concise but highly effective way.
Its theme is Akhirah- the second life after death and presentation of the full record of the deeds done by man in the world. In states how the second life after death will take place and how confounding it will be for man. This very earth on which man has lived and performed all kinds of deeds thoughtlessly, and about which he never could think that this lifeless thing would at some time in the future bear witness to his deeds, will speak out on that Day by Allah’s command and will state in respect of each individual person what act he had committed at a particular time and place.
Then, it has been said that men on that Day, rising from their graves, will come out in their varied groups from all corners of the earth, to be shown their deeds and works, and their presentation of the deeds will be so complete and detailed that not an atom’s weight of any good or evil act will be left unnoticed or hidden from his eyes.
Surah Az-Zalazala primarily deals with the Last Day. The people who denied Hereafter had three misconceptions about i.e. how can such a big stable system of earth and universe can come to an end? Second how can there be any record of every single thing that a man has done? And even if it all happens, then the dieties we have been worshipping will do Shifa’at for us for salvation! All these ideas are crushed in these verses.
Zalzalah means to shake violently over and over again. Thus, زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ means that the earth will be shaken violently by convulsion after convulsion, and since shaking of the earth has been mentioned, it automatically gives the meaning that the entire earth will be shaken and not a limited territory of it. Then, in order to express the great intensity of the earthquake the word زِلْزَالَهَا has been added in end, which literally means “its being shaken”. It mean: “It will be so shaken as a huge sphere like it ought to be shaken, or shaken to its utmost intensity.
Allah warns here that the Day of Judgment is a certain reality and highlights its severity. A kind of earthquake that never happened before. A unique earthquake which is beyond imagination. The earth will be shaken in a way that it will be exhausted to its maximum capacity.
The Day when earth will bring out its burden, its load! The earth will let go of its weights that it carried for so long. Not only the human beings will be thrown out of their graves but even all the treasures of earth for which the man used to fight and kill each other throughout the life in greed. All minerals, precious metals, gold silver, oil everything which man craves for today and strives for, that Day in Akhirah when earth will spill out everything out, then no one will feel any need of these stuff even when it will be lying infornt of their eyes. That Day man will realise how crazy he had been running after useless stuff all his life trapped in worst regret!
The earth gets burdened with people sins, in this Dunia when earthquakes, floods, tsunamis etc happens, its because the earth faces calamity due to our sins. The Final Day of Shaking and earth blasting will be the end result that now the earth is superloaded with sins. Its limit is surpassed.
The earth will cast out bodies of the dead in whatever form and state and wherever they may be lying in the earth. It will not only cast out the dead bodies but also all traces and evidences of the words, deeds and activities of their former life lying buried in it, the earth will narrate all that had happened on its back. The earth will be a witness too to our deeds.
This is when the human beings will be brought back to life and when the earth will witness against man about his crimes and all, then man will exclaim with shock what has happened to the earth? The situation of earth that Day will be so surprising that everyone will wonder whats going around?
Man here may as well imply every man, for after resurrection and coming to senses the first impression of every man will be as to what was happening around him; afterwards he will realize that it was the Resurrection Day.
Man may also imply the man who denies the Hereafter, for what he regarded as impossible would be happening in front of him and causing him confusion and bewilderment. As for the believers, they will not be bewildered and confused, for everything would be taking place according to their belief and conviction.
The same meaning is supported by V: 52 of Surah Ya-Sin, in which it has been said that the deniers of the Hereafter at that time will exclaim:
“Ah, who has roused us from our sleeping-place?” And the reply given would be:
“This is the same which the Merciful God had promised; and the Messengers sent by God had spoken the truth.”
Thus the believers were prepared for this Day, and the criminals were in shock!
Allah’s tone is anger-tinged in this verse that the Day when earth will become a witness to man’s every deed and act to the tiniest of detail. One may wonder how will that happen? But point of focus is that in Akhirah the nature of everything will change, our hands feet skin all will testify against us, earth will be one of the testifire too! Allah will inspire and command the earth to go ahead and give testimony. This is because in court of Allah complete justice will be held, therefore all these wintnesses play major role in proving one criminal or innconet for the final destiny!
Prophet pbuh recited this verse and asked:
“Do you know what annals (record of man) it will relate ?”
The people said:
“Allah and His Messenger have the best knowledge.” Thereupon the Prophet pbuh said:
“The annals are that the earth will testify to the deeds which every man and woman has done on its back.”
It will say:
“He or she had done such and such a thing on such and such a day. These will be the annals the earth will narrate.”
(Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Nasai)
Prophet pbuh said:
“Beware of the earth, for it is your root and basis, and there is nothing which a person does on it, and it will not report, whether it is good or bad.”
(Tabarani)
Be very careful what you are upto on the back of this earth today, as its recording…and soon will witness & speak!
On that Day people will be turned away in multiple groups so that they are shown their records of deeds. This division of groups will be according to the degree and status of good deeds or bad deeds. Even within believers and disbelievers there will be further multiple categories of groups.
Another interpretation is that all humanity will be brought individually, broken up from their families and communities, meaning we will be presented infront of Allah all by ourselves.
The term أَشْتَاتًا means scattered fragments, the separation and diversity of people may be like this on the Day of Judgement,
➖the followers of different religions will arrive separately
➖or the people of every part of the earth will come by themselves
➖or some people will appear with beautiful, happy faces and some others with dark, frowning, dull faces
➖or the believers with the believers and the disbelievers with the disbelievers will come forth on the Day of Judgement.
To combine these commentaries, together, is also quite possible, because the meaning of the verse is vast.
And the purpose will be to show them all the record of their deeds, good & bad! The people will hear with their own ears all the speeches and dialogues of the callers to right guidance and of the preachers of falsehood and evil; the whole record of the writings and dialogue produced by the two sides will be placed intact before them, and the people gathered together in the Plain of Assembly will see with their own eyes the persecution of the lovers of Truth by the worshipers of falsehood and all the scenes of the bitter conflict that raged between the two parties in dunia, hence every matter of life will be brought to justice.
On the Judgment Day, not an atom’s weight of good or evil done by a person, will have been left unrecorded in his conduct book, and he will see it in any case. This verse is one of the verses that shakes Man and shows that the account of Allah, on That Day, is extraordinarily proper and sensitive, and the scales for weighing Man’s deeds are so delicate and just that they count the smallest weight of his actions.
As for the Quran and the Hadith, they have laid down a detailed law of rewards and punishments for the different categories of the people, be they believers, hypocrites, disbelievers, righteous believers; erring believers, wicked and sinful believers, common disbelievers, or wicked and mischievous disbelievers, and these rewards and punishments pervade the entire life of man, from here to the Hereafter. Based on it,
➖ the deeds of the disbelievers, idolaters and hypocrites (i.e., the deeds regarded as virtuous) have been rendered vain; they will receive no reward for them in the Hereafter; if at all they deserve a reward for them, they will receive it here in the world.
➖ the evil will be punished to the extent that evil has been committed, but the good deeds will be rewarded much more generously than what they will actually deserve. At some places it has been explicitly stated that a good act will have a ten-fold reward for it, and at others that Allah will increase the reward of the good act as much as He will please.
➖ if the believers abstained from major sins, their ordinary offenses will be forgiven.
➖ the righteous believer shall have an easy reckoning, his evils will be overlooked and he will be rewarded according to his best deeds.
This verse warns man that even a most ordinary good has its own weight and value, and even a most ordinary evil will also be considered and taken into account; it will not just be overlooked. Therefore, no good act, however small and insignificant, should be left, undone, for many such good acts can collect and be regarded as a major good in the reckoning with Allah. Likewise, even a most ordinary evil also should not be committed, for a large number of such ordinary errors can become serious sins.
The Prophet pbuh said:
“Save yourselves from the fire of Hell even if it be by giving away a bit of a date, or by uttering a good word.”
(Bukhaari, Muslim)
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