Al-Infitar · Makki · ayah 18 of 19

Al-Infitar 82:18

ثُمَّ مَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا يَوْمُ ٱلدِّينِ

“Then, what can make you know what is the Day of Recompense?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked again, after a pause, the question tells you that whatever you pictured the first time was still far too small.

A reflection

Said a second time, more slowly

A doctor sits down with a patient and says, 'This is serious.' He nods and reaches for his tea. She pauses, looks at him, and says it again, more slowly. 'This is serious.' The second time, he puts the cup down. The words have not changed. His understanding of them has.

That is the feel of this ayah. It repeats the previous one almost word for word. The only addition is thumma: then, again, after a pause. Thumma in Arabic marks a gap, a step further on. It is not a stammer. It is the doctor's second sentence.

The commentators explain why. The repetition, one says, is to make the terror greater still. Whatever you picture of the Day, however you imagine it, it is beyond that, many times over. Another describes it as magnifying after magnifying, and astonishment after astonishment. A third simply says: it is to magnify its standing.

Most of us carry a picture of the Day that fits comfortably in the mind. A queue, some scales, a verdict, perhaps a scene from a sermon heard as a child. The second question gently breaks that picture. Not to frighten you with details, but to stop you shrinking it to a size you can manage and then ignore.

There is a quiet kindness in this. The first question, heard once, is easy to pass over. We have heard it before. The second one, after a pause, catches the reader who was nodding along. It says: you have not understood yet. Stay here a moment longer.

The Quran does this elsewhere with the gravest things. 'No, you will come to know. Then no, you will come to know' (102:3–4). The repetition is for the listener who has not yet felt the weight.

Before you move on to the next ayah, do what this one asks. Stop for a breath. Whatever you just imagined of that Day, let it be larger. Then read on, as the patient listened after the second sentence.

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.