Al-Mursalat · Makki · ayah 40 of 50

Al-Mursalat 77:40

وَيْلٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِّلْمُكَذِّبِينَ

“Woe, that Day, to the deniers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The seventh "woe that Day to the deniers" — the last time this refrain names the punishment before the surah turns, for the first time, to describe the reward instead.

A reflection

The refrain that closes the challenge, not just a scene

This exact line was first met at 77:15, and its full treatment lives there. Each return closes a different case; this is the seventh, and it closes the sharpest one yet — the direct challenge of 77:38-39, naming every generation gathered together and daring any scheme to stand against the One gathering them.

Where earlier returns closed an argument from evidence (creation's signs, the body's own beginning) or a description of a scene (fire, silence), this one closes something closer to a direct confrontation. The deniers have just been addressed in the second person, challenged by name, and told plainly that nothing they could muster would change the outcome. The refrain that follows does not add a new point to that challenge; it simply confirms that the challenge stands unanswered, because it always was going to.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.