Al Mu’minūn

فَإِذَا نُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ فَلآ أَنسَابَ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَلاَ يَتَسآءَلُونَ

101. “And when the Trumpet is blown there will be no relationship between them that day, nor will they ask of one another.”

In the previous verses, the statement was upon the barzakh, and now this verse talks about the Day of Resurrection and a part of the state of the wrongdoers in that world. It says:

“And when the Trumpet is blown there will be no relationship between them that day, nor will they ask of one another.”

According to the verses of the Holy Qur’an, the Trumpet will be blown twice. The first blast heralds the death of the universe. After this blast everyone on the earth and in the heavens will die and death will descend over the universe. The second blast of the Trumpet heralds the resurrection from the dead and all the human beings will return to a new life and mankind will begin to be assembled for the Great Reckoning. The blowing of the trumpet is meant for every trumpet but here it has a special meaning and interpretation, and we will turn to it, Allah willing, in the commentary on verse 68 of Sura Az-Zumar.

The two aspects of the Day of Resurrection are mentioned in this verse. One aspect is that the ties of kinship and parentage are no longer effective. Family relationships, in this world, are very important as a natural resource for help in solving various problems, and many sinful persons may escape of a lot of punishments by means of their tribal relationships. But, on the Day of Resurrection, this avenue for help will be closed and similarly relationships with powerful families in society would be of no advantage to anyone.

People here usually ask their kin for help for solving their problems, while on the Day of Resurrection a person’s only companion and friend would be his deeds, and no one, not even that person's brother, offspring or parent will be able to defend him or negate his punishment. The second aspect is that, indeed, they will be too terrified by the Divine Reckoning and punishment to ask anything of each other. The Day of Resurrection will be a day when a mother would ignore her suckling child, when brother will forget his brother, and when people will be seemed as if they were drunk in bewilderment but they are not drank.

It is a time when Allah’s chastisement would be severe, as we read in the beginning of the Sura Al-Hajj:

“O Mankind! Be in awe of your Lord! Verily the earthquake of the Hour (of doom) is a grievous thing. On the Day you shall behold it, every suckling mother shall forsake her suckling babe, and every pregnant woman shall lay down her burden, and you shall see the people (as) intoxicated, yet they are not intoxicated, but the chastisement of Allah is severe.” ¹⁷

There is also another probable interpretation for the Qur’anic sentence /wa la yatasa’alun/:

(“...nor will they ask of one another.”)

that the purpose is that they will not ask each other for help, for they know that this request is not of any use. Some commentators have also said that the verse means that they will not ask each other about their lineage and parentage also and this has been emphasized on the preceding phrase: /fa la ’ansaba baynahum/

(“..., there will be no relationship between them...”)

The first commentary seems more probable although there is no contradiction and conflict between them for it is possible that the above sentence could refer to all of these meanings.

Question

In other verses of the Qur’an, we read that people have different questions to ask of each other, for example in this verse:

“And some of them draw near unto others, mutually questioning.” ¹⁸

Or, the inhabitants of Paradise will ask the inhabitants of Hell:

“What has brought you to this burning?” ¹⁹

But why does this holy verse say,

“...nor will they ask of one another”?

Answer

These two matters do not contradict each other. The first instance of questioning mentioned above concerns the situation after Reckoning and it concerns the people of Paradise questioning the people of Hell. But the verse in question:

(“...nor will they ask of one another.”)

concerns the onset of the Day of Resurrection and the phase before people are sent to Paradise or Hell.

Footnotes

1. 17. Sura Al-Hajj, No. 22, verses 1-2
2. 18. Sura As-Saffat, No. 37, verse 27; and Sura At-Tur, No. 52, verse 25
3. 19. Sura Al-Muddaththir, No. 74, verse 42