Surah Al-Qiyama – Abdul Rashid Ali Sufi

Al-Qiyama ("The Resurrection") is the 75th surah of the Quran, in the 29th juz. It is a Meccan surah of 40 verses, 31st in the traditional order of revelation, after Al-Qari'a. It answers those who doubt that the dead will be raised, depicts the Day of Resurrection and the moment of death, and includes guidance on how the Prophet ﷺ was to receive the Quran.

It opens with two oaths, by the Day of Resurrection and by the self-reproaching soul (75:1-2), and answers man's doubt: does he think We will not gather his bones? We are able to restore even his fingertips (75:3-4). On that Day sight will be dazzled, the moon eclipsed, the sun and moon brought together, and man will ask where to flee; he will be a witness against himself, whatever excuses he offers (75:7-15).

Verses 16 to 19 turn to the Prophet ﷺ: do not move your tongue to hasten it; its gathering and its recitation are upon Us. Ibn Abbas explains that the Prophet ﷺ used to move his lips to retain the revelation as it came down; after these verses he listened while Jibril recited, then recited it as Jibril had (al-Bukhari, Muslim).

Some faces that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord (75:22-23). Scholars cite this verse, together with authentic hadith such as "You will see your Lord as you see this moon" (al-Bukhari, Muslim), for the believers' vision of God in the Hereafter; other faces will be gloomy. The surah then describes death: when the soul reaches the collarbones and one leg is wrapped against the other, to your Lord that Day is the drive (75:26-30).

It ends by asking whether man thinks he will be left without purpose. Was he not a drop of fluid, then a clot, which God shaped and proportioned? Is not He, then, able to give life to the dead? (75:36-40). On not hastening the recitation, see also Ta-Ha.