Ponderings on the Quranic Chapter 69

Published in March 16, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

 The Quranic text has introduced new terms in the Arabic tongue; such terms never existed before the descent/revelation of the Quran. The meanings of such terms are explained ONLY inside the Quranic text; some other terms were known within the Arabic tongue but the Quran uses them within unique meanings or new semantic levels; again these terms are explained only inside the Quranic text. As a general rule, the Quranic verses explain one another. Let us exemplify this in the points below.

1- Regarding the Day of Judgment:

 Arabs before the descent/revelation of the Quran knew about the Day of Judgment; yet, they ascribed lies, fabrications, and falsehoods to the religion of Abraham that distorted it, a grave sin that has been committed, past and present, by the Muhammadans now as far as Islam and the Day of Judgment are concerned. Of course, the Quranic verses indicate the Absolute Truth only to those who seek to adhere to the monotheism of (There is no God but Allah).

1/1: The Quranic explanation of the Day of Judgment is by negating and refuting the intercession of mortals on behalf of other mortals: "But what will convey to you what the Day of Judgment is? Then again, what will convey to you what the Day of Judgment is? The Day when no soul will avail another soul anything; and the decision on that Day is God's." (82:17-19). 

1/2: These verses are about defining those who deny the Day of Judgment and reject the Quran: "Woe on that Day to the deniers.Those who deny the Day of Judgment. But none denies it except the sinful aggressor." (83:10-13).

1/3: God gives the name of (The Shocker) to the Resurrection and He explains this name in the entire Quranic Chapter 101 we quote here: "The Shocker. What is the Shocker? But what will convey to you what the Shocker is? The Day when the people will be like scattered moths. And the mountains will be like tufted wool. As for he whose scales are heavy. He will be in a pleasant life. But as for he whose scales are light. His home is the Abyss. Do you know what it is? A Raging Fire." (101:1-11).

1/4: Likewise, there are many names for Hell in the Quranic text; let us examine some of them, and how they are explained within the Quranic text itself, in the following points.

1/4/1: The name (Saqar) for Hell is explained in these verses: "I will torment him in Saqar. But what will convey to you what Saqar is? It neither leaves, nor spares. It scorches the flesh. Over it are Nineteen." (74:26-30).

1/4/2: The name (Al-Hotama) or (the Crusher) for Hell is explained in these verses: "...he will be thrown into the Crusher. But what will convey to you what the Crusher is? God's kindled Fire. That laps into the hearts. It closes in on them. In extended columns." (104:4-9).

1/4/3: The Quranic term (Seijjeen) is the numerical book of those who will enter into Hell: "...The record of the wicked ones is in Seijjeen. But what will convey to you what Seijjeen is? It is a numerical book." (83:7-9).

1/4/4: The numerical book of the dwellers of Paradise is explained in a similar manner also in the Quranic Chapter 83 in these verses: "No indeed; the record of the righteous is in Elliyyeen. But what will convey to you what Elliyyoon is? It is a numerical book. It is witnessed by those who are brought near." (83:18-21).

2- Within other various topics:

2/1: God explains the Night of Decree in the entire Chapter 97 titled "The Night of Decree", which we quote here: "We sent it down on the Night of Decree. But what will convey to you what the Night of Decree is? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months. In it descend the angels and the Spirit, by the leave of their Lord, with every command. Peace it is; until the rise of dawn." (97:1-5)

2/2: About cheaters or defrauders in trade: "Woe to the defrauders. Those who, when they take a measure from people, they take in full. But when they measure or weigh to others, they cheat." (83:1-3).

2/3: The Quranic term (Al-Aqaba) is explained in these verses: "But what will convey to you what Al-Aqaba is? The freeing of a slave. Or the feeding on a day of hunger. An orphan near of kin. Or a destitute in the dust." (90:12-16).

2/4: The Quranic term Al-Tariq is explained in the Quranic Chapter 86 titled (Al-Tariq) in these three verses: "By the sky and Al-Tariq.But what will convey to you what Al-Tariq is? The Piercing Star." (86:1-3)

3- In light of the above, the term (Al-Haqa) mentioned in the verses 69:1-3 is explained in a similar way within the context of the Quranic Chapter 69 titled (Al-Haqa). We show the details of this in the points below.

Firstly: the meaning of the Quranic term (Al-Haqa):

 This term is derived from the Arabic root (haq) which covers the meanings of reality/truth/right. Thus, the term (Al-Haqa) refers to God's Word as the Absolute Truth and His decrees/commands: "His command, when He wills a thing, is to say to it, "Be," and it comes to be." (36:82). Let us exemplify this in the following points.  

1- Those human beings who insist on choosing misguidance will remain misguided by God's Decision, as God increases their misguidance; in contrast, as for those human beings who choose guidance, God's Decision certainly will be to increase their guidance. 

1/1: God says the following about both types of people: the guided ones and the misguided ones: "Some He has guided, and some have truly deserved misguidance. They have adopted the devils for allies rather than God, and they assume that they are guided." (7:30).

1/2: These verses are about the misguided ones: "Thus your Lord's Word proved true against those who disobeyed, for they do not believe." (10:33); "Most of them follow nothing but assumptions; and assumptions avail nothing against the Truth. God is fully aware of what they do." (10:96); "The Word was realized truly against most of them, for they do not believe." (36:7); "To every community We sent a messenger: "Worship God, and avoid Taghut." Some of them God guided, while others truly deserved misguidance." (16:36).

2- The misguided ones within ancient nations were destroyed an smitten by God; i.e., they truly deserve God's Decree or Decision to be destroyed, as per this Quranic general rule in the Quranic Chapter 17 about those affluent ones who refused to heed and apply the call of God's messengers for justice and piety and insisted on disobedience and sinning; this makes them deserve being tormented and destroyed: "When We decide to destroy a town, We command its affluent ones, they transgress in it, so the Word becomes truly justified against it, and We destroy it completely." (17:16). This is explained again in these verses about nations of sinners destroyed by the Lord God: "None of them but denied the messengers, so My retribution was truly deserved." (38:14); "...They all rejected the messengers, so My threat truly came to pass." (50:14).

3- On the Day of Judgment, God's Decree of tormenting such sinners and disbelievers will truly occur.

3/1: This is inferred from these verses: "...But many truly deserve torment..." (22:18); "Thus the Decree of your Lord is truly realized against those who disbelieve that they are to be inmates of the Fire." (40:6); "We had assigned companions for them, who glamorized to them what was in front of them, and what was behind them. And the Word proved true against them in communities of jinn and humans that have passed away before them. They were losers." (41:25); "Those are they upon whom the Word is proved true, among the communities that have passed away before them, of jinn and humans. They are truly losers." (46:18).

3/2: Upon entering through the gates of Hell, the angels who control Hell and its torment will say the following to sinners and disbelievers: "" (39:71).

3/3: In contrast to Al-Bokhary hadiths/lies of the so-called Muhammad's intercession, Muhammad will never save anyone to get out of Hell; God has addressed Muhammad directly by saying to him the following: "What about someone who has truly deserved the sentence of torment? Is it you who can save those in the Fire?" (39:19). More details about the Sunnite myth of intercession and how the Quran refutes it are found in our book (in English) titled "Intercession between Islam and the Muhammadans", found on this link: (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=119).

4- This verse is about the Quranic Truth itself: "Yet it is the Absolute Truth." (56:95).

5- This is the Truth, or (Haq) in the Arabic and Quranic tongues, about the destruction of the universe when the Hour takes place: "When the sky is ruptured. And hearkens to its Lord, as it truly must. And when the earth is leveled out. And casts out what is in it, and becomes empty. And hearkens to its Lord, as it truly must." (84:1-5).

6- In light of the above, let us tackle briefly the Quranic Chapter 69 in the points below.

Secondly: the Quranic Chapter 69 titled (Al-Haqa):

 The Quranic Chapter 69 begins by posing a question about the meaning of the term (Al-Haqa): "Al-Haqa. What is Al-Haqa? But what will convey to you what Al-Haqa is?" (69:1-3); the rest of the verses of the Quranic Chapter 69 actually explain this term that denotes the Truth/Reality/Justice of the Day of Judgment, as we show in the following points.

1- The first context/group of verses of the Quranic Chapter 69 is about how some ancient nations of sinners/disbelievers/polytheists were destroyed by God: "Thamood and Aad denied the Shocker. As forThamood, they were annihilated by the Overwhelming. And as for Aad; they were annihilated by a furious, roaring win. He unleashed it upon them for seven nights and eight days, in succession. You could see the people tossed around, as though they were stumps of hollow palm-trees. Can you see any remnant of them? Then Pharaoh came, and those before him, and the overturned cities steeped in sin. But they disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, so He seized them with an overpowering grip. When the waters overflowed, We carried you in the cruising ship. To make it a lesson for you - so that retaining ears may retain it. " (69:4-12).

2- The second context/group of verses of the Quranic Chapter 69 is about the Day of Judgment.

2/1: These verses are about the destruction of the physical realm (i.e., the universe) when the Hour takes place: "Then, when the Trumpet is sounded a single time. And the earth and the mountains are lifted up, and crushed, with a single crush. On that Day, the Event will come to pass. And the heaven will crack; so on that Day it will be frail." (69:13-16).

2/2: God will control fully the Last-Day events and the Eternal Realm which will be created after the destruction of the universe; no mortals will have any freedom of action to do anything on that Day; this is shown in this verse that adopts a figurative style about God's control of the Eternal Realm: "And the angels will be ranged around its borders, while eight will be carrying the Throne of your Lord above them that Day." (69:17). This is why the use of the passive voice indicates clearly that human beings will have no measure of freedom of action at all on the Last Day: "On that Day you will be gathered, and no secret of yours will remain hidden." (69:18).

2/3: The passive voice is used with the same indication about the fate of human souls of sinners in Hell and the fate of the pious ones in Paradise: "As for him who is given his book in his right hand, he will say, "Here, take my book and read it. I knew I would be judged." So he will be in pleasant living. In a Lofty Garden. Its pickings are within reach. "Eat and drink merrily for what you did in the days gone by." But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say, "I wish I was never given my book. And never knew what my judgment was. If only it was the end. My money cannot avail me. My power has vanished from me." "Take him and shackle him. then torment him in the Fire. Then in a chain whose length is seventy cubits tie him up. For he would not believe in God the Magnificent. Nor would he urge the feeding of the destitute. So he has no friend here today. And no food except Ghisleen. Which only the sinners eat." (69:20-37).

3- The third and last context/group of verses of the Quranic Chapter 69 is about the Quran itself as the Absolute Truth from the Lord God.

3/1: God swears by things we see an things unseen to the human eye that the Quran is His Word descended to be revealed to humanity: "Indeed, I swear by what you see. And by what you do not see. It is the speech of a noble messenger. And it is not the speech of a poet - little do you believe. Nor is it the speech of a soothsayer - little do you take heed. It is the Revelation from the Lord of the Worlds." (69:38-43).

3/2: Muhammad conveyed the entirety of the Quranic Message he received from the Lord God, and he never ascribed to Almighty God anything else (no hadiths, narratives, etc.), since he was NOT punished by the torment mentioned here as a warning to him: "Had he falsely attributed some statements to Us. We would have seized him by the right arm. Then slashed his lifeline. And none of you could have restrained Us from him. Surely, it is a message for the pious ones. And We know that some of you will reject it. And it is surely a source of grief for the unbelievers." (69:44-50).

3/3: Within the last two verses of the Quranic Chapter 69, God says the following about the Quran itself: "Yet it is the Absolute Truth. So glorify the name of your Lord, the Magnificent." (69:51-52); this is echoed and repeated in these last two verses of the Quranic Chapter 56: "Yet it is the Absolute Truth. So glorify the name of your Lord, the Magnificent." (56:95-96). Glorified be the Holy Name of our Almighty Lord God forever and ever; as always, God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.