An-Nazi'at · Makki · ayah 13 of 46

An-Nazi'at 79:13

فَإِنَّمَا هِىَ زَجْرَةٌ وَٰحِدَةٌ

“Indeed, it will be but one shout,”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everything the deniers thought impossible takes a single shout: no second call, no effort, no delay.

A reflection

Sixty thousand people, forty minutes

At the end of a big match, the stadium announcer asks sixty thousand people to leave calmly by their nearest exit. It takes forty minutes. Stewards in yellow jackets wave, point and repeat themselves. Queues form at the gates. Some people sit on to finish their drinks. Moving a crowd, even a willing one, takes planning, patience and many voices.

Now read this ayah. The deniers have just laid out their case: crumbled bones, a return that could never be. The answer is four words. Fa-innamā hiya zajratun wāḥida: it will be but one shout.

The sources explain the link. Something is left unsaid before it: do not think this return is hard. It is a single shout. One early authority describes it as a command from Allah that needs neither repetition nor emphasis. And at once, every human being who ever lived is standing. Another ayah compares it to the blink of an eye: 'Our command is but one, like a glance of the eye' (54:50).

One commentator notices the word chosen. Not ṣayḥa, a scream, but zajra, a short, sharp call. It is lighter. And wāḥida, one: it needs no second attempt.

This is where the ego goes quiet. We are proud of our influence: the email that got everyone moving, the meeting we chaired, the crowd that listened. Every one of those needed reminders, follow-ups and a great deal of noise. The whole of humanity, from the first to the last, will need one call.

A doubt follows. Is this a boast, a Lord showing off His power? Or does making resurrection sound so easy make it harder to believe? The sources answer that the ease is the whole point. It is the reply to people who thought the return impossible. Allah is not trying to impress us. He is free of every need: 'I want no provision from them' (51:57). He is correcting our sense of scale, for our sake.

The deniers' hardest case, bones that whistle in the wind, is answered by the lightest word in the language. That is majesty.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.