An-Naziat

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النازعات
An-Nāziʻāt
Those Who Pull Out

Arabic text · English translation

Classification Meccan
Other names Those Who Drag Forth, Soul-Snatchers, The Pluckers, The Snatchers, Those That Rise, The Forceful Chargers
Position Juzʼ 30
No. of Rukus 2
No. of verses 46
No. of words 179
No. of letters 762
Mummy of Ramesses II[1]

Sūrat an-Nāziʻāt (Arabic: سورة النازعات‎‎, “Those Who Pull Out”, in reference to “the angels who tear out the souls of the wicked”) is the seventy-ninth sura of the Qur'an with 46 ayat. Its name derived from the word wan-nazi‘at with which it opens. The root (n-z-‘) roughly means “to yank out with great force”,[2] although it can also mean “to yearn for” or “to yearn after”.[3]

Period of revelation

Its subject matter testifies that Sūrat an-Nāziʻāt belongs to the earliest period at Makkah. According to Hadrat Abdullah bin Abbas, this Surah was sent down before Surah An-Naba, whilst Muḥammad Khaṭīb has opined that surah 79 was revealed around five years before the Hegira, although other commentators have dated the surah’s revelation at eight years before the Hegira.[4] Western Qur’an scholar Richard Bell has argued that parts of surah 79, notably the opening verses, may date from a later Meccan period,[5] though this is not generally accepted by other scholars.

Theme and subject matter

Its theme is affirmation of Resurrection and the life hereafter. It also warns of the consequences of belying the Messenger of God.

The Surah opens with oaths sworn by the angels who take the soul at deaths and those who hasten to carry out Allah’s Commands, and those who conduct the affairs of the universe according to Divine Will, to assure that the Resurrection will certainly come to pass and the second life after death will certainly take place. For the angels who are employed to pluck out the soul today can also be employed to restore the soul tomorrow, and the angels who promptly execute Allah's Commands and conduct the affairs of the universe today can also upset the order of the universe tomorrow by orders of the same God and can also bring about a new order.

After this the people have been told, so as to say: “This work which you regard as absolutely impossible, is not any difficult for Allah, for which He may have to make lengthy preparations. Just a single jolt will upset this system of the world and a second jolt will be enough to cause you to appear as living beings in the new world. At that time the same people who were wont to deny it, would be trembling with fear and seeing with awe struck eyes all that they thought was impossible.

Then, relating the story of the Prophet Moses and Pharaoh briefly (it is the chronologically earliest sura to do this),[6] the people have been warned to the effect: “You know full well what fate the Pharaoh met in consequence of belying the Messenger and rejecting the guidance brought by him and endeavoring to defeat his mission by trickery and deceit. If you do not learn any lesson from it and do not change your ways and attitude accordingly, you also will have to meet the same fate.

Then, in vv. 27-13, arguments have been given for the Hereafter and life after death. In this regard, the deniers have been asked the question:"Is your resurrection a more difficult task or the creation of the huge Universe which spreads around you to infinite distances with myriads of its stars and planets? Your recreation cannot be difficult for the God for Whom this was an easy task. Thus, after presenting in a single sentence, a decisive argument for the possibility of the Hereafter, attention has been drawn to the earth and its provisions that have been arranged in it for the sustenance of man and animal and of which everything testifies that it has been created with great wisdom for fulfilling some special purpose. Pointing to this the question has been left for the intellect of man to ponder for itself and form the opinion whether calling man to account after having delegated authority and responsibilities to a creature like him in this wise system would be more in keeping with the demands of wisdom, or that he should die after committing all sorts of misdeeds in the world and should perish and mix in the dust for ever and should never be called to account as to how he employed the authority and fulfilled the responsibilities entrusted to him. Instead of discussing this question, in vv. 34-41, it has been said: "When the Hereafter is established, men's eternal future will be determined on the criterion as to which of them rebelled against his God transgressing the bounds of service and made the material benefits and pleasures his objective of life and which of them feared standing before his Lord and refrained from fulfilling the unlawful desires of the self." This by itself provides the right answer to the above question to every such person who considers it honestly, free from stubbornness. For the only rational, logical and moral demand of giving authority and entrusting responsibilities to man in the world is that he should be called to account on this very basis ultimately and rewarded or punished accordingly.

In conclusion, the question of the disbelievers of Makkah as to when Resurrection will take place, has been answered. They asked the Holy Prophet this question over and over again. In reply it has been said that the knowledge of the time of its occurrence rests with Allah alone. The Messenger is there only to give the warning that it will certainly come. Now whoever wishes may mend his ways, fearing its coming, and whoever wishes may behave and conduct himself as he likes, fearless of its coming. When the appointed time comes, those very people who loved the life of this world and regarded its pleasures as the only object of life, would feel that they had stayed in the world only for an hour or so. Then they will realize how utterly they had ruined their future for ever for the sake of the short lived pleasures of the world.

See also

Moses and Pharaoh in Quran

References

  1. ↑ Ramesses II
  2. ↑ Tafsir; ‘An-Nazi‘at’
  3. ↑ Ali, Maulana Muhammad; The Holy Qur'an with English Translation and Commentary, p. 1138 ISBN 091332101X
  4. ↑ Khaṭīb, Muḥammad; The Bounteous Koran: A Translation of Meaning and Commentary
  5. ↑ Bell, Richard (translator); The Qur’an (volume 2; p. 633. Published 1937 (reprint 1960) by T. & T. Clark
  6. ↑ Starkovsky, Nicolas; The Koran Handbook: An Annotated Translation
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