Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 90 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:90

وَأَمَّآ إِن كَانَ مِنْ أَصْحَـٰبِ ٱلْيَمِينِ

“And if he was of the companions of the right,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The second rank keeps the name it was given at the start, and it is the only one of the three that is not renamed.

A reflection

The rank that is not renamed

Three ranks were named at the surah's opening and all three come back at the deathbed. Two of them arrive under different names.

The Foremost are now the Brought Near. The Companions of the Left are now the Deniers, the Astray. And this rank is called exactly what it was called at the start: the Companions of the Right.

One commentary notices and explains it. They were expressed by the earlier title, it says, for one reason. No description was given of them earlier that tells of their state, other than this one. The other two groups were given such a description.

So the renaming of the others was possible because they had something else to be called. This rank did not.

Another commentary gives a different reason for the same fact. The one who went ahead has two states, one in the first life and one in the last. So he was named by each in turn. The deniers were named three ways across the surah, by where they stand and by what they did. But this rank was mentioned with two titles close to each other. Their state is close to the state of those who went ahead.

Either way the observation is the same, and it is worth having. The middle rank is the one the surah says least about.

That is a strange kind of comfort and it should be taken as one. Most readers, honestly assessed, are hoping for this rank. And it is the one the Book characterises least, which means there is less in the description to measure yourself against and fail.

What the surah does give them, it gives in one word, in the next ayah.

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