Az-Zalzalah · Madani · ayah 6 of 8

Az-Zalzalah 99:6

يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصْدُرُ ٱلنَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًا لِّيُرَوْا۟ أَعْمَـٰلَهُمْ

“That Day, the people will depart[1964] separated [into categories] to be shown [the result of] their deeds.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Like herds turning home from the water, people will leave that place in scattered groups, each walking the road its own deeds laid down.

A reflection

Turning home from the water

On the last afternoon before the summer holidays, the school gates swing open. For a moment the whole school is one crowd. Then it breaks apart. Some children run shrieking to waiting parents. Some walk off in noisy groups. Some leave alone, heads down, dreading the report in their bag. Ten minutes later the playground is empty, and every child has gone a different way.

The ayah's verb carries a desert picture. Ṣadar is the herds turning back from the watering place after they have drunk. Going down to the water was wurūd; coming away from it was ṣadar. The first hearers knew the sight: animals and people converging on one well, then scattering in every direction towards their own camps.

The sources read the ayah through that image in two ways. Perhaps people 'arrive' in the earth when they are buried and 'depart' from it at the resurrection, scattered from every corner of the world. Or perhaps they arrive at the place of reckoning and depart from it, some to the right and the Garden, some to the left and the Fire. 'On that Day they will be separated' (30:14).

Ashtāt, scattered, is a word of parting: a tribe's camp breaking up, teeth set far apart. The sources explain the groups differently. Some say it is by outcome: faces bright and secure, faces dark and afraid. Others say each people goes with its own kind, the followers of each way together.

The root of ṣadar holds one more detail. The Arabs described someone who starts a thing and never finishes it as a man who takes his camels down to the water but never brings them back. A journey is not complete until you turn for home.

Every life is a trip to the water and back. We arrive, we drink from this world, and then we turn. The ayah asks which road home you are building now, while the herd is still at the well.

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.