Commerntary on the Koran: Surah 79 (No. Q079)

Pickthall Translation; Bible Quotes are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Introduction

An Nazi’at takes its name from a word in verse 1 which refers to those who drag forth with the intent of facing the Resurrections with the possibility of destruction. Verses 2 and 3 are referred to by some as referring to Angels in their heavenly roles and (as noted by Pickthall) as “those who console the spirits of the righteous tenderly” and those who come floating down from heaven with their Lord’s command.” Pickthall’s rendering is the more obvious. However the meaning of the angelic support of the elect is the intention.

It is an early Beccan Surah to accord with the themes of the warning of the Arabs and the spectre of the Resurrection and Judgment.

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79.1. By those who drag forth to destruction,

79.2. By the meteors rushing,

79.3. By the lone stars floating,

79.4. By the angels hastening,

79.5. And those who govern the event,

79.6. On the day when the first trump resoundeth.

79.7. And the second followeth it,

79.8. On that day hearts beat painfully

79.9. While eyes are downcast

Job 24:19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.

Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Isaiah 13:9-11 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. ¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. ¹¹I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

Mark 13:24-25 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Luke 21:25-27 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

1Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

As was noted in the comments to Surah 39.68 the last trumpet noted in 1Corinthians 15:52 above consists of two trumpets, the first one for the destruction of the nations, the second for the First Resurrection.

79.10. (Now) they are saying: Shall we really be restored to our first state

79.11. Even after we are crumbled bones?

79.12. They say: Then that would be a vain proceeding.

Refer to Revelation 20:12 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15 and Ezekiel 37:4-6 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 45 (No. Q045) at ayat 26.

79.13. Surely it will need but one shout,

79.14. And lo! they will be awakened.

This is the shout of the Archangel at the return of Messiah.

Refer to John 5:28-29 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 21 (No. Q021) at ayat 47 and Daniel 12:2 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 24 (No. Q024) at ayat 42.

79.15. Hath there come unto thee the history of Moses?

79.16. How his Lord called him in the holy vale of Tuwa,

Exodus 3:1-2 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God ²And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

79.17. (Saying:) Go thou unto Pharaoh - Lo! he hath rebelled –

Exodus 1:11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Exodus 1:13-16 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. ¹⁵Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶“When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”

Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Exodus 3:7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Exodus 3:10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Acts 7:34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

79.18. And say (unto him): Hast thou (will) to grow (in grace)?

79.19. Then I will guide thee to thy Lord and thou shalt fear (Him).

79.20. And he showed him the tremendous token.

79.21. But he denied and disobeyed,

79.22. Then turned he away in haste,

79.23. Then gathered he and summoned

79.24. And proclaimed: "I (Pharaoh) am your Lord the Highest."

Read Exodus chapters 7 to 11 for the detailed biblical account of the brief summary in ayats 18 to 24 above.

79.25. So Allah seized him (and made him) an example for the after (life) and for the former.

79.26. Lo! herein is indeed a lesson for him who feareth.

Exodus 14:27-28 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.

Exodus 15:4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

Deuteronomy 11:3-4 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, ⁴and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day,

There is indeed a lesson for humanity in the story of Pharaoh during Moses’ time, in that if you defy the Almighty God then you will reap the severe consequences.

79.27. Are ye the harder to create, or is the heaven that He built?

79.28. He raised the height thereof and ordered it;

79.29. And He made dark the night thereof, and He brought forth the morn thereof.

Refer to Acts 17:26 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 3; Genesis 1:28 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 45 (No. Q045) at ayat 13; Isaiah 42:5 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 51 (No. Q051) at ayat 48 and Genesis 5:2 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 51 (No. Q051) at ayat 49.

Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

Genesis 1:16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

The creation of the heavens would obviously be a more difficult and complex task than the creation of physical humans. Scripture reminds us that with Him all things are possible and that nothing is too difficult for Him to accomplish.

79.30. And after that He spread the earth,

79.31. And produced therefrom the water thereof and the pasture thereof,

79.32. And He made fast the hills,

79.33. A provision for you and for your cattle.

Refer to Isaiah 55:10 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 45 (No. Q045) at ayat 6 and Isaiah 42:5 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 51 (No. Q051) at ayat 48.

Psalm 136:6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever;

Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

Psalm 128:2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Genesis 1:12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Isaiah 30:23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,

See Psalm 104:13-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 78 (No. Q078) at ayat 16.

79.34. But when the great disaster cometh,

79.35. The day when man will call to mind his (whole) endeavour,

79.36. And hell will stand forth visible to him who seeth,

79.37. Then, as for him who rebelled

79.38. And chose the life of the world,

79.39. Lo! hell will be his home.

See 1Corinthians 4:5 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 78 (No. Q078) at ayat 30.

Also refer to Revelation 20:11-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15 and 2Corinthians 5:10 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 36.

Proverbs 1:27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

Proverbs 10:24 What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

Refer also to Matthew 25:31-46 for the parable of the sheep and the goats.

79.40. But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust,

79.41. Lo! the Garden will be his home.

Refer to Revelation 20:6 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 11 (No. Q011) at ayat 108 and 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 27 (No. Q027) at ayat 87.

Matthew 24:31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

79.42. They ask thee of the Hour: when will it come to port?

79.43. Why (ask they)? What hast thou to tell thereof?

79.44. Unto thy Lord belongeth (knowledge of) the term thereof.

Matthew 24:36 But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Mark 13:32 But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Acts 1:7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

79.45. Thou art but a warner unto him who feareth it.

Refer to Ezekiel 3:17-19 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 53 (No. Q053) at ayat 56.

Ezekiel 18:21-22 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²²None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.

79.46. On the day when they behold it, it will be as if they had but tarried for an evening or the morn thereof.

Refer to Revelation 20:12 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15 and Revelation 20:4-6 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 18 (No. Q018) at ayat 31.

Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

The elect will be resurrected to eternal life in the First Resurrection at the return of Christ. The rest of humanity will wait in their graves for a thousand years and will be resurrected to physical life in the Second Resurrection when they will be retrained and re-educated to lead them to repentance. Those who refuse to repent will face the second death and be remembered no more.

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