Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 2 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:2

لَيْسَ لِوَقْعَتِهَا كَاذِبَةٌ

“There is, at its occurrence, no denial.”

Saheeh International

Essence

At its falling there is no denial left anywhere, not even the private kind that tells a man he can take whatever comes.

A reflection

Four ways to hear "no denial"

In an assay office the dispute about a piece of gold is short. A goldsmith may be certain of his alloy. He may have mixed it himself and have a reason for every part of it. The cupel does not take his reason into account. The metal goes in, the base content burns away into the bone ash, and the bead that remains is weighed. Nobody argues with the bead.

Read in English, this ayah sounds like a flat prediction: on that day nobody will deny it. True, and oddly dull. The Arabic is doing more than that, and the commentators separate out at least four hearings of the one word.

The first is the obvious one. There will be no soul there telling a lie about Allah, as souls do now, and no soul calling the unseen false. On that day every soul is a believer, truthful, and believed.

The second turns it round. There will be no soul there to call it a lie, saying to it: you will not happen. Today, the commentaries note, there are a great many souls saying exactly that.

The third is the one most of us have never met. Arabic says of a man's own soul that it lied to him when it egged him on into something beyond him. It flattered him: you can manage this and more, so go at it and do not worry. On this reading, the ayah says that no soul will be telling its owner he can take it. That particular lie, the quiet internal one, is also finished.

The fourth is grammatical. Kādhiba is read as a verbal noun, on the pattern of ʿāqiba, outcome, and ʿāfiya, well-being. The sense is then plain: there is no falsification of its falling. The grammarians compare "you will hear in it no idle word" (88:11), where the participle likewise stands for the thing itself.

Four hearings, one word, and no need to choose. What they share is a subtraction. Something that currently exists in enormous quantity will not exist there. Not the argument against it, and not the nerve that tells you you are equal to it.

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.