Al-Qiyamah · Makki · ayah 25 of 40

Al-Qiyamah 75:25

تَظُنُّ أَن يُفْعَلَ بِهَا فَاقِرَةٌ

“Expecting that there will be done to them [something] backbreaking.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The scowling faces are sure a back-breaking blow is coming, and that dread never settles; the shining faces have nothing left to wait for.

A reflection

Not a guess: the well you cannot see into

Many readers stumble on the first word. Taẓunnu is often rendered 'think' or 'expect', and ẓann is usually translated as supposition. So it can sound as if these faces are only guessing that something bad might happen.

The commentaries say almost the opposite. They gloss it as 'be certain' and 'know': these faces are sure ruin is coming. The root allowed both. The Arabs called a well ẓanūn when no one could tell whether it held water. Yet a warrior could tell his enemy to be sure of two thousand men on their way. One lexicon draws the line neatly. Ẓann can be certain, but it is the certainty of reflection, not of the eye.

That is exactly the state of these faces. They know, but they have not yet seen. They are staring into a well whose depth they cannot measure.

One commentator hears an edge of irony as well. These were the people who called the Day a guess. Now, standing in it, a 'guess' finally comes to them: that it was real all along.

A man waves away his accountant's warning about a large tax bill. It is just an estimate, he says, one of her guesses. In January a brown envelope arrives. Before he opens it, he reckons it might be serious after all. The certainty has arrived at the worst possible time.

Another commentary adds a further reason for the verb. Whatever these faces are suffering, they expect something worse to follow. Expecting is harder than knowing, because knowing can brace itself. This dread never settles into a fact.

So taẓunnu is not doubt. It is certainty without sight, and without end. That is far more frightening than a guess.

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.