Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 76 of 96
Al-Waqi'ah 56:76
وَإِنَّهُۥ لَقَسَمٌ لَّوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عَظِيمٌ
“And indeed, it is an oath - if you could know - [most] great.”
Saheeh International
Essence
Three words are dropped into the middle of the oath, and they do not flatter the hearer: they tell him he does not know.
A reflection
Great, in the sense of near
A ship's whistle in fog is not loud in the way a shout is loud. You feel it in the sternum before you identify it. The note is low enough to arrive in the body rather than only in the ear.
The word for great in this ayah is the word for that kind of size. One commentary explains the choice in a way that is easy to miss.
It begins with a comparison. When men swear, their oaths are described as heavy or stiffened, because the sin of breaking one is grave. Allah's oath is described as great. And the commentary asks why this word fits.
The answer it gives is this. Great, in its sense, is what has come near to every heart and filled the chest with awe. It then explains the idea from the physical world. A great body is one that has come close to many things and filled many places with its bulk. In the same way, what is great and is not a body has come near to many matters, and filled many chests.
So greatness here is measured by reach into people, not by distance above them.
That is the sentence that deflates a man quietly. Our own idea of greatness is almost entirely about separation. The office nobody else enters. The name that goes before you into a room. The gap between you and the people you were at school with. Pride is a distance measurement.
This name is a nearness measurement. The thing is great because it has reached every chest, including the chest of whoever is reciting the ayah at two in the morning.
And you cannot be proud in front of something that has already arrived inside you. You can only be quiet.
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