1. Literally, al-Haqqah denotes something that is bound to take place without a doubt. The significance of using this for the Resurrection and at the outset of the Surah is to convey to the disbelievers that their denial of the inevitable event, howsoever vehement, will fail to avert its occurrence.

2. These two questions, asked in quick succession, are aimed at alerting and drawing the attention of the addressees. They should better realise the significance of the contents of this message and listen with the attention that it deserves.

3. Since the Makkan disbelievers rejected the Resurrection and dismissed its tidings mockingly, they are warned that, irrespective of their rejection and denial, the Last Day is bound to happen. They are further told that its rejection has a deep bearing on the morals of the nation and their future. It is fairly evident, from the history of earlier communities, that those who rejected the belief of the Hereafter, mistaking this worldly life as the only life, and denied their appearance and accountability before God, landed themselves into moral degeneration. Ultimately divine penalty exterminated them from the earth.

4. Al-qari'ah literally means rapping, striking, and thumping. This terminology has been used for the Resurrection (Qiyamah), which emphasises that it will be an extremely horrendous and dreadful event.

5. Al-ṭaghiyah is described as al-rajfah in verse 78 of Surah al-A'raf; al-şayḥah in verse 67 of Surah al-Hüd and ṣa'iqah in verse 17 of Surah Ḥā Mīm al-Sajdah. All these expressions refer to an astonishing upheaval.

6. This is an allusion to the settlements and dwellings of the people of the Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) which, as mentioned in verse 82 of Surah Hūd and verse 74 of Surah al-Hijr, were completely razed to the ground.

7. This refers to the Flood in the days of the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) which, for their serious offences, drowned a whole community except the believers among them.

8. The whole human race that exists today consists of the descendants of those who boarded the ark several thousands of years ago. Hence it is said that "God bore you upon a floating ark." In other words, mankind survives to this day because God had rescued the believers and drowned only the disbelievers in the deluge.

9. Reference is made to the retentive ears that facilitate taking a lesson which penetrates to the heart. The obvious allusion is to the attentive listeners who do not disregard the truth. They remember this instructive event and draw a lesson. They realise that the rejection of the Hereafter or God's Messengers incurs devastating consequences.

10. Before studying the later verses, it should be borne in mind that at places the Qur'an states the three different phases of Resurrection which will unfold in quick succession. At others, the Qur'an provides a coherent narrative, combining all these phases together. For example, verse 87 of Surah al-Naml refers first to the blowing of the trumpet. All human beings will rise on hearing its dreadful sound. Then they will witness the harrowing spectacle of the end of the present order of the universe, which is graphically described in verses 1-2 of Surah al-Ḥajj, 49–50 of Surah Yā Sin and 1-6 of Surah al-Takwir. Verses 67-70 of Surah al-Zumar relate the devastating effects of the second and third blowing of the trumpet. The former will bring about the death of all human beings while the latter will cause their resurrection and appearance before God. Verses 102-112 of Surah Ta Ha, 101-103 of Surah al-Anbiya', 51-53 of Surah Ya Sin and 20-22 of Surah Qaf refer to only the third blowing of the trumpet. (For details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. V, Surah Tā Hā 20: n. 78, pp. 223-224; vol. VI, Surah al-Hajj 22: n. 1, pp. 5-6 and vol. IX, Surah Yā Sīn 36: nn. 46-47, pp. 265-266.)

11. This is one of the ambiguous verses (mutashābihāt) of the Qur'ān, of which no precise meaning can be offered. We can neither know as to what the divine throne is, nor can we understand how eight angels will bear it aloft on the Day of Judgement. However, it is inconceivable that Allah will be sitting on His throne and that eight angels will literally bear him aloft on the Day of Judgement, for the verse does not specify this. In light of the Qur'anic description of God elsewhere, it cannot be assumed that He will be sitting on a particular spot or that any creature will carry Him, for He transcends the body, direction and place. Any attempt to overstretch the import of this verse is tantamount to jeopardising one's faith. However, this point should be understood well, that for conveying a palpable idea of God's kingship and dominion, the Qur'an has employed the same imagery which is associated with the worldly kings. It has drawn upon the same terms which are usually used for the description of a king and his kingdom. By this analogy alone, man can gain some idea of God's dominion. Such terms are readily comprehensible to the human mind. However, it will be incorrect to take these expressions literally.

12. As one's record will be given to him in his right hand, it will signify that his account is clean and clear. He will appear before God not as a criminal, but as a righteous person. It is likely that at the time of the handing over of records, he himself will collect it in his right hand. From his death, up to the moment of his appearance in the grand assembly, he will receive such treatment, convincing him that God will reward, not punish him. The Qur'an clarifies that at the time of death, everyone realises his status as a culprit or as a righteous servant of God. Obviously, these two types of persons are treated differently from the time of their death to the Resurrection. A righteous person is treated as a guest and an evil person as a culprit under custody. On the Day of Judgement, which will inaugurate a new life for everybody, the disbelievers and the righteous will stand apart from each other. (For details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. IV, Surah al-Naḥl 16: 28 and 32, n. 26, pp. 79, 80 and 107, 324-325; vol. V, Surah Tā Hā 20: 102, 103 and 124-126, nn. pp. 224-225 and 240-241; Surah al-Anbiyā' 21: 103, n. 98, p. 299; vol. VII, Surah al-Furqan 25: 24, n. 38, p. 20; Surah al-Naml 27: 89, n. 109, pp. 189-190; vol. IX, Surah Saba' 34: 51, n. 72, p. 202; Surah Ya Sin 36: 26-27, nn. 22-23, pp. 253-254; Surah al-Mu'min 40: 45-46, n. 63: Surah Muḥammad 47: 27, n. 37; Surah Qaf 50: 19-23, nn. 22, 23 and 25.)

13. He will be delighted on getting his record in his right hand and will show it to his friends. Verse 9 of Surah al-Inshiqaq captures his state of mind thus: "He shall return to his people joyfully."

14. He will explain the reason behind his good fortune: that it lay in the fact that he was never heedless of the Hereafter and spent his entire life in believing that one day he will be made to stand before God and be called to render account by Him.

15. Verse 10 of Surah al-Inshiqaq states that a sinner will be given his record behind his back. This is likely to be because he would already be aware of his being a sinner and a culprit, and also of the contents of his ignoble record, so he will dejectedly collect his record in his left hand and will try to hide it behind his back so that no one may find out what he received.

16. A sinner would wish that he had not faced public humiliation in the grand assembly when he receives his record of deeds. His wish would be that he should have been punished for his misdeeds secretly.

17. Another possible meaning could be: "Would that I had known what accounting is!" This emphasises that the evildoers will be faced with something they had not imagined - that they will be required to render an account of all their deeds and that the whole record of their lives will be placed before them.

18. His wish would be that his death would have made a permanent end to him, not to be followed by any other life after death.

19. The word sultan connotes both a clinching argument and authority. In its former sense, the meaning would be that his resorting to any argument or pretext in this world will not work on the Day of Judgement. He will have no argument whatsoever to defend himself. Taken in the latter sense, the verse means that on that day, he will see that the power he once enjoyed in the world, which had made him exultant and arrogant, has vanished. Unaided by an army, or by those who once obeyed him, he will stand as a miserable and powerless creature, lacking even the ability to defend himself.

20. Let alone feeding a hungry person himself, he was not even moved enough to ask others to do so.

21. i.e., the reality is quite different from what they fancy.

22. "The honourable Messenger" is the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) while in verse 19 of Surah al-Takwir, the same appellation is used for Gabriel (may peace be on him). In the verse under study, the assertion about the Prophet (peace be upon him) is followed by the statement that the Qur'an is not the product of the mind of some poet or soothsayer. Needless to add, the Makkan disbelievers accused the Prophet (peace be upon him), not the angel Gabriel, of being a poet or a soothsayer. In Surah al-Takwir however, the remark about the honourable message- bearer is followed by this description: "One mighty and held in honour with the Lord of the Throne; there he is obeyed, and held trustworthy. He (the Prophet) indeed saw the message-bearer on the clear horizon." (al-Takwir 81: 19-23) Almost a similar description of Gabriel features in verses 5-10 of Surah al-Najm.

It nonetheless raises the question that in what sense can the Qur'an be referred to as the word of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Gabriel? The answer is that people received the Qur'an from the tongue of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who, in turn, received it from the tongue of Gabriel. The Qur'an is thus the word of the Prophet (peace be upon him) as well as of Gabriel. It is therefore clarified later that the Qur'an is indeed the Word of the Lord of the universe, which is conveyed through the agency of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Gabriel. The word Rasul (Messenger) itself signifies that it is not directly from them, rather, as Messengers they presented the Qur'an on behalf of the Lord of the universe.

23. "That they believe little" in Arabic is an idiom that points to their lack of faith. Alternatively, it might mean that at times on listening to the Qur'an, they instinctively exclaim that it is not the product of the human mind. However, they soon relapse into their disbelief and obstinately refuse to believe in the Qur'an.

24. While swearing by all that the disbelievers see and what they do not see, it is emphasised that the Qur'an is not the word of a poet or a soothsayer. It is the Word of the Lord of the universe, conveyed through an honourable, noble Messenger. Let us now focus on the oath taken in the verse. The disbelievers could easily discern all this:

i. The Qur'an was being presented by someone whom every Makkan knew to be a noble, trustworthy person and there was nothing hidden about him. It was common knowledge that he was of the highest moral standard in his society. He was the best among his people. Such a decent person was not likely to invent such a flagrant lie as to attribute something falsely to God and to parade his own ramblings as the Word of God.

ii. The Makkan disbelievers knew full well that he had no personal motive or gain behind presenting the Qur'an. On the contrary, he was sacrificing his interests in the cause of this mission, for he had abandoned his profession of trade. He had given up all personal comforts and joys. He was reviled by those who used to hold him in great esteem. Not only he himself, but his family, his children included, had been subjected to all manner of hardships. He had been undergoing an ordeal, never expecting any personal gain in return.

iii. They recognised that the members of their own society who embraced faith at his hands were completely transformed overnight. No poet or soothsayer had ever achieved this feat. They were incapable of morally transforming anyone. Nor could they inspire anyone to withstand all sorts of hardships for their sake.

iv. They were fully aware of the limitations of the sayings of a poet or a soothsayer. Only a blindly obstinate person could dismiss the Qur'an as poetry or soothsaying. (For details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. V, Sūrah al-Anbiyā' 21: n. 7, pp. 252-254; vol. VII, Surah al-Shu'ara' 26: nn. 142-145, pp. 126-129; Surah al-Tür 52: n. 22.)

v. They realised that no one among them throughout Arabia could match the Qur'an in its eloquence and stylistic features. There was simply no comparison with the Qur'an.

vi. It was in their knowledge that the Prophet's own literary skills were vastly different from those of the Qur'an. No native Arabic speaking person who listened to the Qur'an and to the Prophet's own speech could ever assume that the Qur'an and the Prophet's speech were the product of the same source. vii. Even a day prior to the Prophet's declaration of his Messengership, the Makkans had never heard him discussing the issues and truths which he presented as the contents of the Qur'ān. They knew well that he did not have access to any source of knowledge. Even if his detractors alleged that he had borrowed the contents of the Qur'an from someone, no Makkan would have bought this story. (For details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. IV, Surah al-Naḥl 16: n. 107, pp. 366–367 and vol. VII, Surah al-Furqän 25: n. 12, pp. 7--10.)

viii. They witnessed the functioning of the vast universe which exhibited the operation of extensive and well-coordinated laws. There was no ground whatsoever for vindicating polytheism and for rejecting the belief of the Hereafter, the notions to which the Arabs of the day subscribed. On the contrary, they could observe all around them the overwhelming evidence for monotheism and the Hereafter, which are the bulwarks of the message of the Qur'ān.

The Makkan disbelievers were unable to perceive that Allah alone is the Creator, Master, and Ruler of this universe and that all human beings are His servants. They failed to see that there is no god other than Him and that the Resurrection is bound to happen. They could not reconcile themselves to the truth that God had appointed Muhammad (peace be upon him) as His Messenger and had sent down the Qur'ān to him.

On the basis of all that the Makkan disbelievers could and could not see, the oath is taken for vindicating the above truths.

25. The true purpose of the statement is to stress that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had no authority whatsoever to alter the revelation. If he did so, he would be liable to God's severe chastisement. The tone and tenor of the statement brings to mind how a king might react on learning that his official had forged a document and had ascribed it to him. It should not be surprising if such persons are subjected to a grievous punishment such as a beheading. Some people put forward an altogether false assertion on the basis of this verse. They claim that if anyone declared that he was a Prophet and his life-vein was not then immediately severed, it would prove that his claim was true. The fact, however, is that what is said in this verse pertains to Prophets and not to false claimants of prophethood, for as we know, there have been claimants even to Godhead who lived long years despite the absolute falsity of their claims. Their longevity was no proof that their claim to Godhead was true. (For further details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. IV, Surah Yunus 10: n. 23, pp. 21-24.)

26. The Qur'an is good counsel for those who are keen on avoiding the dire consequence of following the wrong path. (For details see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. I, Surah al-Baqarah 2: n. 3.)

27. The disbelievers will eventually regret their rejection of the Qur'ān.