1. No! I swear by the Day of Rising. The la is emphatic in this ayat and the next.

2. No! I swear by the self-reproaching self, which is critical of itself, even if it strives to do good.

3. Does man (the unbeliever) imagine We will not reassemble his bones for the Resurrection and being brought back to life?

4. On the contrary! We are well able to reshape his fingers as they were, in spite of their small size. So how can that not be the case with what is larger?

5. Yet man still wants to deny what is ahead of him – the Day of Rising –

6. …asking, ‘So when is the Day of Rising?’ They ask this question out of mockery and denial.

7. But when the eyesight is dazzled (read as bariqa and baraqa) when it sees what it used to deny –

8. …and the moon is eclipsed – it goes dark and its light departs –

9. …and the sun and moon are fused together when they both rise from the West or when the light of both of them disappears: that is, the Day of Rising,

10. …on that Day man will say, ‘Where can I flee to?’

11. No indeed! There will be no safe place where they can escape to and no refuge in which they can protect themselves.

12. That Day the only resting place will be your Lord – where creatures stop for their Reckoning and Repayment.

13. That Day man will be told what he did and failed to do: his actions, first to last.

14. In fact, man will be clear proof against himself. His limbs will bear witness against him, testifying about what he did. Repayment for one’s actions is inevitable –

15. …in spite of any excuses he might offer. No excuse that anyone brings will be accepted. Allah said to His Prophet:

16. Do not move your tongue trying to hasten it – to hasten the Qur’an before Jibrıl finishes conveying it, out of fear that you may lose some of it.

17. Its collection and recitation are Our concern. “We collect it in your breast and make you recite it on your tongue.”

18. So when We recite it, follow its recitation. “When Jibril recites it to you, then listen to its recitation.” The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would listen to it and then recite it.

19. Then its explanation is Our concern. Then We make you understand it.

20. No indeed! But you love (read as tuhibbuna and yuhibbuna, “they love”) this fleeting world,

21. …and you disregard the Next World and do not work for it.

22. Faces that Day – the Day of Rising – will be beautiful and radiant,

23. …gazing at their Lord. They will see Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He! – in the Next World.

24. And faces that Day will be glowering in intense displeasure,

25. …realising that a back-breaking blow has fallen. They are certain that a disaster has occurred which breaks the back due to its severity.

26. No indeed! When it (the breath) reaches the gullet (the throat)

27. …and he hears the words from those around him: ‘Who can heal him now?’

28. …and he knows it is indeed the final parting: he is certain that his spirit has reached the moment of departing from this world,

29. …and one leg is entwined with the other in death, or it is a metaphor for the intensity of the experience of leaving this world and going to the Next World,

30. …that Day he will be driven to your Lord. The meaning is: when the breath reaches the gullet, he will be driven to the judgement of his Lord.

31. He neither affirmed the truth nor did he do the prayer…

32. …but rather denied the truth (the Qur’an) and turned awa y from faith,

33. …and then went off to his family, swaggering – arrogant in his gait.

34. Closer to you and closer! – There is a change to the second person. What you dislike is coming nearer and it is nearer to you than anything else.

35. Then closer to you and closer still! – This is for emphasis.

36. Does man reckon he will be left to go on unch e cke d – left ignored, and not subject to laws or taken to account for thatii

37. Was he not a drop of ejaculated (read as yumna and tumna) sperm,

38. …then a blood-clot which He created and shaped when the drop of sperm became a blood-clot, from which Allah created the human being and made his limbs balanced,

39. …making from it both sexes, male and female? Allah makes a clot of blood from the sperm and then a piece of flesh from that, and then male and female, sometimes both together, and sometimes each one separately.

40. Is He who does that not able to bring the dead to life? In answer to this question, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Yes indeed, He is!”