Al-Jathiyah · Makki · ayah 29 of 37

Al-Jathiyah 45:29

هَـٰذَا كِتَـٰبُنَا يَنطِقُ عَلَيْكُم بِٱلْحَقِّ ۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا نَسْتَنسِخُ مَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

“This, Our record, speaks about you in truth. Indeed, We were having transcribed[1475] whatever you used to do."”

Saheeh International

Essence

On that Day the record needs no lawyer; it speaks with the truth, because every deed was copied down as it was done.

A reflection

Can there be a copy without an original?

Nastansikhu means 'We had it copied'. The root n-s-kh has two pictures in the lexicons. The sun nasakhat the shade: it moved across a courtyard and took the shade's place. And copying a book was also naskh: one text standing in for another. The images are established.

The commentaries record a lively exchange over this word. An early Companion is reported to have said to people who doubted his reading: are you not Arabs? Can there be copying except from an original? On his view, the angels copy from the Mother of the Book what each person will do, and then find the deeds match it exactly. Others explained it as the recording angels writing deeds after they are done. One commentator says the deeds themselves are then the 'original' being copied. A later classical scholar concluded that the ayah may include both: knowledge written beforehand, and deeds written as they happen, never differing by a grain.

Picture a museum conservator making a facsimile of an ancient map. She works for months, line by line, comparing every coastline and every faded letter with the original under glass. When she is done, a visitor cannot tell the two apart. The copy is perfect because it was made from something real.

The ayah's point, whichever explanation you take, is exactness. Nothing in the record is invented, exaggerated or missing. 'We had it copied' carries the confidence of a perfect transcription.

This is unsettling for anyone hoping their deeds would be remembered vaguely, in their favour. It is deeply reassuring for anyone afraid of being misrepresented. The record of your life will be neither harsher nor softer than your life was. It will be an exact copy.

What in your week would you be glad to see copied exactly?

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.