Al-WāqiʿahThe Inevitable Event

'Khāfiḍatun rāfiʿah' — the Event lowers some people to the Fire in disgrace and raises others to Paradise in honour; the same occurrence brings opposite outcomes for the two parties.

— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

Al-sābiqūn are those foremost in good deeds in every nation — the earliest and most sincere of each community; the surah says they will be many from earlier peoples and 'thullatun min al-ākhirīn', fewer from the later ones, though some commentators note this contrasts with other reports suggesting parity for this ummah.

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

Kaʾsin min maʿīn — a cup from a flowing spring of wine unlike this world's — la yuṣaddaʿūna ʿanhā wa-lā yunzifūn: it gives neither headache nor loss of reason, removing the two harms of worldly wine.

— Ibn Kathīr

'Lā laghwan fīhā wa-lā taʾthīmā' — their gathering has no vain speech and no sin in it, unlike gatherings of drink in this life; salām is their mutual greeting and description of their state.

— Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

'Sidrin makhḍūd' — lote trees stripped of their thorns, made pleasant instead of harmful; this contrasts deliberately with the thorny sidr of this world, showing a defect of creation removed in the Hereafter.

— Ibn Kathīr

The companions of the left are described by their worldly pattern — 'they persisted in the great sin' (al-ḥinth al-ʿaẓīm), understood by many commentators as shirk, and denial of the Ba'th — before their punishment is described; the sin explains the sentence.

— Al-Qurṭubī

'A-fa-raʾaytum mā tumnūn, a-antum takhluqūnahu am naḥnu al-khāliqūn' — you only place the seed; you have no power over whether it becomes a living being. The same pattern repeats for seed-sowing, water, and fire, each ending 'or are We the creators/senders/producers?'

— Ibn Kathīr

The fire example (tree used for kindling, al-shajarah al-khaḍrāʾ) is especially pointed: green, moist wood produces fire though fire and moisture are opposites, showing Allah's power to bring forth an effect from an unlikely cause — as He brings life from what seems lifeless.

— Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān

'Fa-lā uqsimu bi-mawāqiʿ al-nujūm, wa-innahu la-qasamun law taʿlamūna ʿaẓīm' — an oath emphasised as tremendous precisely because the thing sworn about, the Qur'an's protected transmission, is tremendous; 'lā yamassuhu illā al-muṭahharūn' refers primarily to the angels who convey it, and is used by scholars also regarding physical purity in touching the muṣḥaf.

— Ibn Kathīr

The closing scene of the three groups at death mirrors the opening exactly, so the surah's final image is not an abstract future Day but each individual's own approaching moment — 'fa-ammā in kāna min al-muqarrabīn... fa-rawḥun wa-rayḥānun wa-jannatu naʿīm.'

— Al-Ṭabarī