Qaf · Makki · ayah 44 of 45

Qaf 50:44

يَوْمَ تَشَقَّقُ ٱلْأَرْضُ عَنْهُمْ سِرَاعًا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ حَشْرٌ عَلَيْنَا يَسِيرٌ

“On the Day the earth breaks away from them [and they emerge] rapidly; that is a gathering easy for Us.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The earth cracks open and lets them go, they hurry out, and the gathering of every human being is, for Him alone, easy.

A reflection

Easy for Us, and for no one else

In Arabic the natural order would be ḥashrun yasīrun ʿalaynā, a gathering easy for Us. The ayah moves 'for Us' forward: ʿalaynā yasīr. Three classical commentators stop at this. Putting it first, they say, restricts the ease to Him. This is easy for Us, and for no one else.

Why is it easy for Him alone? One of them answers in a phrase worth memorising. He is the One whom no affair distracts from another. Another ayah says the same: your creation and your raising are only as a single soul (31:28).

Picture an air traffic controller at a busy airport. She tracks a dozen aircraft at once, each a dot with a call sign. She is among the best in her field. Yet after two hours she must hand over to a colleague and step away. No human mind can hold that many lives for long without strain.

Now widen the picture beyond imagining. Every human being who has ever lived, in every grave and every sea, raised in a single moment. Not one confused with another, not one forgotten. For Him, the ayah says, this is easy.

This is where the ego should shrink. We are proud of juggling a few tasks. We call ourselves busy and overloaded. Set beside this ayah, our busyness looks very small. The heaviest day we have ever had would not register as effort for Him.

Why does Allah tell us it is easy? Is it a boast? He needs no admiration (35:15). The word answers a doubt the deniers voiced. They thought the return far-fetched. He tells them it costs Him nothing.

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.