Al-Qiyamah · Makki · ayah 13 of 40

Al-Qiyamah 75:13

يُنَبَّؤُا۟ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ يَوْمَئِذٍۭ بِمَا قَدَّمَ وَأَخَّرَ

“Man will be informed that Day of what he sent ahead[1802] and kept back.[1803]”

Saheeh International

Essence

That Day you hear the full news of your life: all you sent ahead, and all you held back or left behind.

A reflection

Two ends of one saddle

Ask most people what this ayah describes and they will say: on the Day, you are shown your sins. A charge sheet, read aloud. That is true as far as it goes. But the ayah names two things, not one.

Qaddama and akhkhara: sent ahead, and held back. The old Arabic picture behind the pair is a camel saddle. It had a front post and a back post. The lexicons call the front its qādima and the back its ākhira. Every journey had both: what rode ahead of you, and what rode behind.

The early commentators unpacked the pair in at least five ways. What you did before death, and the practices you left that others followed after it. The sin you rushed into, and the obedience you put off. Your first deed and your last. The good you did, and the rights of Allah you neglected. The wealth you gave in your lifetime, and the wealth you left to your heirs.

One of the greatest early commentators weighed them all and declined to choose. Allah did not single out one of these, he concluded, so the ayah includes every one.

That changes the picture. The report on the Day is not only a list of what you did. It includes what you did not do. It includes what kept happening after you stopped.

A woman collects her car after its annual test. It has passed. But the certificate carries a section headed 'advisories'. Tyres close to the legal limit. A brake pipe beginning to corrode. Nothing failed today, yet everything she was warned about is written down, with the date.

Most of us keep only the pass mark in our minds. The ayah remembers the advisories. It also remembers what you set rolling, which may still be rolling when you are gone. Both ends of the saddle travel with you.

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.