Al-QiyāmahThe Resurrection

The self-reproaching soul (al-lawwāmah) is sworn by because every soul, righteous or sinful, reproaches itself — the righteous for falling short, the sinful in glimpses of conscience it tries to suppress.

— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

'Balā qādirīna ʿalā an nusawwiya banānah' — mentioning the fingertips specifically is a proof that resurrection is not mere restoration but exact restoration, down to the pattern of a fingerprint, which no two people share.

— Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān

'Bal yurīdu al-insānu li-yafjura amāmah' — man wants to keep sinning ahead of him, unchecked, and so he pushes the Day of Judgement out of his mind rather than genuinely doubting the argument for it.

— Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

Ibn ʿAbbās explained that the Prophet ﷺ used to move his lips along with Jibrīl عليه السلام out of eagerness not to forget, so this āyah was revealed to relieve him of that effort — its preservation was already guaranteed.

— Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4927, 5044

'Inna ʿalaynā jamʿahu wa qurʾānah' — upon Us is its collection in your breast and its recitation upon your tongue; 'fa-idhā qaraʾnāhu fa-ttabiʿ qurʾānah' — so when We (through Jibrīl) have recited it, follow that recitation attentively.

— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

'Thumma inna ʿalaynā bayānah' — then upon Us is its clarification, meaning the explanation of its rulings and meanings, a promise later fulfilled through further revelation and through the Prophet's ﷺ own teaching.

— Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

'Wujūhun yawmaʾidhin nāḍirah, ilā rabbihā nāẓirah' is cited by Ahl al-Sunnah as a proof that the believers will see Allah in the Hereafter, a direct, honouring vision reserved for that Day.

— Ibn Kathīr

The two verses on faces are placed back-to-back deliberately: radiance and gazing upon the Lord versus a face that already looks defeated, expecting the fāqirah — a crushing blow to the spine.

— Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān

'Kallā idhā balaghat at-tarāqiya' — no, when the soul reaches the collarbones at death; the surrounding verses describe the helpless search for a physician and the certainty, at last, that this is al-firāq — the final parting from this world.

— Ibn Kathīr

'Wa-ltaffat as-sāqu bis-sāq' is understood by most commentators as the extreme hardship of the death agony described physically — the legs entwining in the final throes — and by some as the joining of this world's hardship with that of the next.

— Al-Qurṭubī

'A-yaḥsabu al-insānu an yutraka sudan' — does man imagine he will be left without command or prohibition, without reward or punishment? The rhetorical question exposes the absurdity of believing existence has no accountability attached to it.

— Ibn Kathīr

The progression — a drop, then a clinging clot, then shaping, then the two sexes — is presented as the pattern Allah already enacts routinely; the One who does this the first time is 'qādirun ʿalā an yuḥyiya al-mawtā', able to do it again.

— Al-Ṭabarī