56.Surah Al-Waqiah
The Quranic text and Ali’s version
إِذَا
وَقَعَتِ الْوَاقِعَةُ
﴿١﴾
56:1. When the event inevitable cometh to pass.
C5222. The Event Inevitable is the Hour of Judgment.
لَيْسَ
لِوَقْعَتِهَا
كَاذِبَةٌ
﴿٢﴾
56:2. Then will no (soul) entertain falsehood concerning its coming.
56:3. (Many) will it bring low,
C5223. There will be a sorting out of Good and Evil. Or rather, (verse 7 below), there will be three main classes.
Among the Good there will be the specially exalted class, those nearest to Allah (muqarrabun, 56:11-26),
and the righteous people generally, called the Companions of the Right Hand (Ashab-ul-maimana, 56:27-40).
And there will be those in agony, the Companions of the Left Hand (Ashab-ul-mash-ama, 56:41-56).
... رَّافِعَةٌ ﴿٣﴾
(many) will it exalt;
إِذَا
رُجَّتِ الْأَرْضُ
رَجًّا
﴿٤﴾
56: 4. When the earth shall be shaken to its depths,
وَبُسَّتِ
الْجِبَالُ
بَسًّا
﴿٥﴾
56: 5. And the mountains shall be crumbled to atoms,
.
فَكَانَتْ
هَبَاء مُّنبَثًّا
﴿٦﴾
56: 6. Becoming dust scattered abroad,
وَكُنتُمْ
أَزْوَاجًا
ثَلَاثَةً
﴿٧﴾
56: 7. And ye shall be sorted out into three classes.
فَأَصْحَابُ
الْمَيْمَنَةِ
مَا أَصْحَابُ
الْمَيْمَنَةِ
﴿٨﴾
56: 8. Then (there will be) the Companions of the Right Hand --
what will be the Companions of the Right Hand?
وَأَصْحَابُ
الْمَشْأَمَةِ
مَا أَصْحَابُ
الْمَشْأَمَةِ
﴿٩﴾
56: 9. And the Companions of the left hand --
what will be the Companions of the Left Hand?
Asad’s version
56:1 WHEN THAT which must come to pass [at last] comes to pass, 1
(56:2) there will be nought that could give the lie to its having come to pass,
(56:3) abasing [some], exalting [others]!
(56:4) When the earth is shaken with a shaking [severe],
(56:5) and the mountains are shattered into [countless] shards,
(56:6) so that they become as scattered dust
56:7 [on that Day,] then, shall you be [divided into] three kinds.
(56:8) Thus, there shall be such as will have attained to what is right: 2 oh, how [happy] will be they who have attained to what is
right!
(56:9) And there shall be such as will have lost themselves in evil: 3 oh, how [unhappy] will be they who have lost themselves in evil!
[[Asad’s notes -
1 I.e. the Last Hour and Resurrection
2 Lit. 'Those [or The people'] of the left side": see note 25 on 74:39.
3 [Lit., "those [or "the people"] of the left side". Similarly to the use of the expression maymanah as a metonym for "attaining to what is right", the term mashamah is used to denote "losing oneself in evil" (e.g., in 90:19). The origin of both these metonyms is based on the belief of the pre-Islamic Arabs that future events could be predicted by observing the direction of the flight of birds at certain times: if they flew to the right, the event in question promised to be auspicious; if to the left, the contrary. This ancient belief was gradually absorbed by linguistic usage, so that "right" and "left" became more or less synonymous with "auspicious" and "inauspicious". In the idiom of the Qur'an, these two concepts have been deepened into "righteousness" and "unrighteousness", respectively.]