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wa-jīʾa yawmaʾidhin bi-jahannama yawmaʾidhin yatadhakkaru l-ʾinsānu wa-ʾannā lahu dh-dhikrā
the day when hell is brought [near], man will take admonition on that day, but what will that admonition avail him?
— Ali Quli Qarai
89Al-FajrالفجرVerse 23 of 30
The Dawn89. Al-Fajrالفجر
al-Fajr
The Dawn
MeccanVerse 23 of 30
Surah Fajr, Verses 21-26
21. “Nay! When the earth if crushed with crushing upon crushing,”
22. “And comes (the command of) your Lord and the angels in ranks arrayed,”
23. “And Hell, That Day, if brought (face to face), - on That Day will man remember, but how will that remembrance profit him?"
24. “He will say: O, would that I had forwarded (good deeds) for (this) my life!"
25. “For none can punish like His punishment on That Day,”
26. “Nor can anyone bind like His binding.”
They Will Awaken On a Day When It Is Too Late
In the former verses the transgressors who love the wealth of the world and oppress the rights of others are described. In these verses the oppressors are warned that there will be a Reckoning Day and a violent punishment waiting for them. So, they should expect it. At first it says:
that is, it is not as they think such that there will be no record and a Reckoning Day, and they should not think that the worldly property which Allah has given them is for their honouring and not for their trial. Then it continues:
The term /dakk/ originally means 'a level land’ so, then, it is used in the sense of ‘to pound the hills and buildings level, into dust', and /dakkih/ is 'a platform levelled and flat for sitting’. The repetition of /dakk/, in the verse is for emphasis. On the whole, the idea touches on the earthquakes and the horrible events at the end of this world and the beginning of the Resurrection. There will be such a great revolution in all creatures that all mountains cleave as under and the land will be levelled and smooth as Surah Taha, No. 20, verses 105-107 say:
When the first stage of the Resurrection ends, that is, after the dissolution of the world, the second stage will begin and all human beings will return to life again, they will be present for the Divine Judgement:
The angels will surround all who are attending the gathering place of resurrection to carry out Allah’s command to them. This is an outline on the glory and greatness of That Day and the inability of Man to escape from the grips of Justice. The term
means that the command of the Lord comes for verifying Mankind's reckoning. Or, it means that the signs of the appearance of Allah’s Glory and Greatness come. Or, still, it means that the appearance of the knowledge of Allah will come on That Day in such a way that no one can deny it, in so much as all will see His Supreme Being with their own eyes. In any case, it is certain that His coming does not mean a material coming which would mean that He has a body and needs space to move in; He is far superior to that of having bodily properties.
This very idea is mentioned in a tradition from Imam Ali-ibn-Musa-al-Riza (as).24 A witness to this commentary is Surah Nahl, No. 16, verse 33 which says:
The term
points to the idea that the angels will enter the Hereafter in different rows, or perhaps the angels, of every heaven, will be in a row and surround the human beings there.
It is understood, from this verse, that Hell is movable and approaches the wrongdoers, the same as Heaven does for the Righteous:
Some commentators tend to define, metaphorically, the appearance of Heaven and Hell in front of the eyes of the good-doers, and the wrong doers, and while there is no evidence available to contrast their evident meaning, still it is better to simply leave them as such. Nevertheless, the facts of the Hereafter are not precisely clear to us and the circumstances, there, are completely different with those here so, it is of little concern whether, on That Day, Heaven and Hell move from one place to another or not.
A tradition about the Prophet (S) denotes that when the above verse was revealed he turned pale. That change was hard for his companions to bear, so, some of them went to Hazrat Ali (as) and told him of the event. He came and kissed the Prophet (S) between his two shoulders and said:
"O, Messenger of Allah! May my parents be thy ransom, what has happened today?”.
The Prophet (S) answered:
"Gabriel came and recited this verse (the current verse) to me”.
Ali said that he asked the Prophet (S) how Hell would be brought (face to face), and he replied:
"Seventy thousand angels will drag and bring it by seventy thousand halters. Hell is so unyielding that if it were left free, it would bum all. Then I will stand against Hell (Jahannam) and it will tell me that it has no business with me and Allah has forbidden my flesh for it.
On That Day, all will he busy with their own affairs, but Muhammad (S) will say:
‘O, Lord! My community! My community.’” 26
Verily, when a sinner observes this, he may be shaken and awakened. A kind of grief and sorrow may envelop him and he will become regretful for his past wrongful deeds, but this regretfulness profits him naught. Man will desire to come back to this world and recompense his dark past, but there will be no gate open to return. He wants to repent for his faults, but it is too late. He wishes to do good deeds to repay his evil deeds, but the Records of Deeds will be rolled up.
Hence, it is for this that he cries and
It is noteworthy that he does not say: ‘for my future life’ but he says:
as if the term
is not used for anything but the life in That World; and the fleeting life of This World, which is full of pain and suffering, is not counted as life. Surah Ankabut, No. 29, Verse 64, says:
Truly, those who devoured the wealth of orphans, did not feed the needy, took the lawful and unlawful inheritance from others, and loved the property of this world with all their hearts, will wish, on That Day, that they would have forwarded some good deeds for their next life, which is eternal and is, indeed the real life. However, this wish is useless and will not benefit them. Then, in two short sentences, it describes the violence of the divine punishment on That Day:
And why not? Those oppressors, who committed the worst vices in this world, will be punished, on That Day, so that the like of which, had not been seen before. Just as the righteous will be rewarded, to such an extent that no one could have imagined it before; since Allah is the Most Merciful to those who show mercy, and vice versa.
Neither His
nor His
can be compared with anything else. Why should He bind and chastise? Because they oppressed the helpless servants of Allah, in this world as much as they could and persecuted them with the worst of tortures, they themselves should be tightly bound and chastised.
Footnotes