مُهطِعينَ إِلَى الدّاعِ ۖ يَقولُ الكافِرونَ هٰذا يَومٌ عَسِرٌ

Scrambling toward the summoner. The faithless will say: ‘This is a hard day!’

EXEGESIS

Muhṭiʿīn (scrambling) is the plural active participle of the verb ahṭaʿa and can either mean to hasten one’s pace whilst walking or to stretch one’s neck to listen or see something.[1] Some exegetes have maintained that the word encompasses both meanings and thus it means to walk fast whilst having an outstretched neck or looking towards someone or something.[2] Arberry, seemingly incorporating both meanings, translates the verse as ‘running with outstretched necks to the Caller …’[3]

This scene is also more clearly depicted in other verses such as: Scrambling with their heads upturned, there will be a fixed gaze in their eyes and their hearts will be vacant (14:43); The day when they emerge from the graves, hastening, as if racing toward a target, with a humbled look [in their eyes], overcast by abasement. That is the day they had been promised (70:43-44).

Some linguists have also added the qualifier of ‘being forced’ to the concept of walking fast.[4] According to Muṣṭafawī, the root of the word means to raise the head, outstretch the neck, and raise one’s eyes, and this is a sign of bewilderment, anticipation, and terror. As for concepts such as coming forward, submitting, hastening, and humbling, they are all consequences of the original meaning.[5]

The word ʿasir (hard) is a quasi-participle (al-ṣifah al-mushabbahah) of the root ʿusr which means severity and difficulty. It has been metaphorically used as an adjective for day, since a day is a span of time that cannot really be described as hard. Rather, what is intended is that the day will be full of extremely difficult matters such as detailed accounting and severe punishment.[6]

EXPOSITION

Whilst it is possible in this world to disobey the commands of God, the hereafter is no place for disobedience and everyone shall be subservient to the commands of Allah which are existential (takwīnī) rather than legislative (tashrīʿī) (see 20:108). Thus, the deniers will have no choice but to disgracefully run toward the summoner.[7] The horror of being called towards a dire thing (verse 6) is the harbinger of the gloomy predicament that the faithless recognise they should expect due to the actions they have perpetrated against God. They feel in the bottom of their hearts that it is going to be a hard day. Soon, they shall be surrounded by sights that would make them tremble, and their horror would increase once they receive their book of deeds (18:49). They would be accounted with such delicate precision that they had never imagined (31:16). There would be no option on that day for making up for sins or apologising, since no excuse will be accepted and no one would be allowed to go back and make up for their shortcomings (2:48 and 6:27). The guilty would give up anything that they have and would be willing to do anything to save themselves from the fire (70:11-15).

Whilst the Day of Judgement is one that will be hard on the deniers (25:26), the Quran frequently paints a different picture for the believers and reminds that for them there will be ease: Indeed, those to whom there has gone beforehand [the promise of] the best reward from Us will be kept away from it. They will not hear even its faint sound and they will remain [forever] in what their souls desire. The great terror will not upset them, and the angels will receive them [saying]: ‘This is your day which you were promised (21:101-103); Whoever brings virtue shall receive [a reward] better than it; and they shall be secure from terror on that day (27:89). From these verses, it can clearly be seen that the believers shall not be afflicted with the terror and fear that will overcome the deniers on that day. Whilst the deniers will be horror-struck, the believers will be comforted by the angels.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. It has been reported that Imam al-Sajjād (a) once addressed people in the Mosque of the Prophet: ‘My father narrated to me from his father, Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (a), who told the people: “On the Day of Judgement, Allah will resurrect the people from their graves in one plane unarmed, empty-handed, naked, glabrous, each being driven by their own light [based on their faith and deeds], whilst darkness would have engulfed every station until they are stopped at the difficult plane of maḥshar. Becoming overcrowded, some of them will climb upon the others; thereat they will be prevented from moving ahead. Their breathing will be heavy and they will sweat profusely, and their affairs would be constricted, their noises would intensify, and their voices would be raised … This will be the first horror from the horrors of the Day of Judgement … Then the Compeller (al-jabbār) will attend to them from above His Throne, in a shadow of the angels, so He will command an angel from the angels who would call out among them: ‘O group of creatures! Be quiet and listen intently to the call of the Compeller.’ So the last of them would hear it just as the first of them … Their voices would break up due to that, their eyes would be humbled, their chests would be throbbing, their hearts would be in a panic, and they will be raising their heads towards the direction of the voice hastening to the caller … So when that happens, the faithless would say, This is a hard day.”’[8]

[1] Munyah, 27/187.
[2] Safi, 5/100; Daqaiq, 12/532; Ibn Ashur, 27/172.
[3] Arberry.
[4] Tibyan, 9/446.
[5] Tahqiq, 11/268.
[6] Ibn Ashur, 27/172.
[7] Mudarrisi, 14/219.
[8] Kafi, 8/104, h. 79.