As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 21 of 182

As-Saffat 37:21

هَـٰذَا يَوْمُ ٱلْفَصْلِ ٱلَّذِى كُنتُم بِهِۦ تُكَذِّبُونَ

“[They will be told], "This is the Day of Judgement which you used to deny."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The reply comes back to the deniers: this is the Day of Sorting, the very Day you used to call a lie.

A reflection

The knife that finds the joint

Faṣl is parting one thing from another until a clear gap shows between them. The lexicons give its pictures. A mafṣil is a joint, where two bones meet. A butcher who knows his work faṣṣala a sheep at its joints, not hacking through bone but finding the natural seam. A weaned camel calf is a faṣīl, parted from its mother's milk. A judge is a fayṣal: his word parts truth from falsehood. Even the beads that space out a necklace are its fawāṣil.

So yawm al-faṣl is not only 'the Day of Judgement' in a general sense. It is the Day of the clean parting. One early commentator explains: the Day Allah separates between His creation with justice. Another says it is the Day judgement is made between the people of Paradise and the people of the Fire. A third: the Day of deciding and distinguishing between the groups of guidance and of misguidance.

Notice the butcher's skill in the image. The cut is not random. It follows a line that was already there. On the Day of Sorting, nothing new will be invented about anyone. The seam that separates the truthful from the false already runs through every life. That Day only finds it and parts it.

That is both frightening and calming. Frightening, because the seam cannot be argued away. Calming, because no one will be cut where they were not already divided. Allah does not wrong anyone.

It is a good question to ask of your own life. Where is the seam running through me right now? On which side of it am I standing, in my private habits as much as my public ones?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.