Chapter 89

ENTITLED, THE CLEAVING IN SUNDER; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

WHEN the heaven shall be cloven in sunder; and when the stars shall be scattered; and when the seas shall be suffered to join their waters; and when the graves shall be turned upside down: every soul shall know what it hath committed, and what it hath omitted. O man, what hath seduced thee against thy gracious LORD, who hath created thee, and put thee together, and rightly disposed thee? In what form he pleased hath he fashioned thee. Assuredly. But ye deny the last judgment as a falsehood. 10 Verily there are appointed over you guardian angels,d honourable in the sight of God, writing down your actions; who know that which ye do. The just shall surely be in a place of delight: but the wicked shall surely be in hell; they shall be cast therein to be turned, on the day of judgment, and they shall not be absent therefrom forever. What shall cause thee to understand what the day of judgment is? Again, What shall cause thee to understand what the day of judgment is? It is a day whereon one soul shall not be able to obtain anything in behalf of another soul: and the command, on that day, shall be GOD'S.

x Or, I will not swear, &c. See chapter 56, p. 398, note m. y Some understand hereby the stars in general, but the more exact commentators, five of the planets, viz., the two which accompany the sun, and the three superior planets; which have both a retrograde and a direct motion, and hide themselves in the rays of the sun, or when they set. z i.e., Gabriel. a See chapter 53, p. 389. b Some copies, by a change of one letter only, instead of dhanînin, read danînin; and then the words should be rendered, He is not tenacious of, or grudges not to communicate to you, the secret revelations which he has received. c Who has overheard, by stealth, the discourse of the angels. The verse is an answer to a calumny of the infidels, who said the Korân was only a piece of divination, or magic; for the Arabs suppose the soothsayer, or magician, receives his intelligence from those evil spirits, who are continually listening to learn what they can from the inhabitants of heaven. d See chapter 50, p. 384, and the Prelim. Disc. Sect. IV. p. 56.