وَالتَفَّتِ السّاقُ بِالسّاقِ
And the shank is wound around shank.
EXEGESIS
Iltaffat (is wound around) is the eighth form verb from the root laffa, which means to wrap around or roll up. Lush gardens are described as alfāf in 78:16 because it is as if their trees are wrapped around each other.
Sāq (shank) is from the verb sāqa, meaning to drive something from behind, like in the verse, And We drive (nasūqu) the guilty as a thirsty herd towards hell (19:86). The noun sāq refers to the lower half of a person’s leg. It is called that because it is what a person uses to move themselves forward. The market is a called a sūq because that is where the goods that people need are taken.
EXPOSITION
This is a profound and weighty phrase that has been interpreted in some distinct ways by the exegetes. These interpretations range from the literal to the deeply metaphorical.
The literal interpretation takes the words at their most apparent meaning. It describes the physical state of a person in the throes of death. The intense pain and agony cause the body to convulse, resulting in one leg being twisted around the other. This paints a powerful image of the helplessness and extreme distress that accompanies the soul’s departure from the body.
The metaphorical interpretation takes the word sāq as an Arabic idiom for a severe, overwhelming calamity. The phrase ‘one sāq is wrapped with another sāq’ thus means that one grave matter has become entangled with another. In the context of the verse, this signifies that the immense ordeal of death is immediately followed by the even greater ordeal of the afterlife.
Another related metaphorical interpretation focuses on the sequential progression of these events. It sees the ‘first sāq’ as the terror and hardship of dying, and the ‘second sāq’ as the terror of the resurrection and the subsequent standing before God for judgement. The verse, in this reading, marks the seamless and immediate transition from one stage of divine accountability to the next, emphasising the continuity of the soul’s journey from the end of worldly life into the afterlife. This interpretation signifies that there is no pause or rest; as soon as the ordeal of death is concluded, the soul is plunged directly into the next stage of its eternal journey. It emphasises the continuity and relentless progression of the soul’s passage into the afterlife.
Ṭabrisī summarises these views in a concise paragraph attributing each to one of the early exegetes. He says And the shank is wound around shank is interpreted in different ways:
- From Ibn Abbas and Mujāhid, that the severity of the affair of the hereafter becomes intertwined with the affair of the worldly life.
- From Hasan al-Baṣrī, that the state of death becomes intertwined with the state of life.
- From al-Shaʿbī and Abū Mālik, that his two shins become intertwined at the time of death. This is because his strength fails, and he becomes like a hide that is folded over itself. It is also said that he convulses, continuously stretching one leg and relaxing the other, wrapping one around the other – according to Qatādah. Another is that it refers to the wrapping of the two shins in the shroud.
- Also from Ibn Abbas and others, that the ‘shank’ of the world is wrapped with the ‘shank’ of the hereafter, meaning the intense agony of death with the intense terror of what is to be witnessed.
The core meaning common to all the metaphorical interpretations is that hardships befall him in succession, so he does not emerge from one hardship except that a more severe one comes upon him.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- In the same previously quoted hadith from Jābir ibn Yazīd al-Juʿfī, that he asked Imam al-Bāqir (a) regarding this verse, and the Imam said: ‘The life of this world is intertwined with the hereafter.’
[1] See Tahqiq, 5/330-332, s-w-q.
[2] See Zamakhshari, 4/663. Related in Tibyan, 10/201; Tabari, 29/123.
[3] Qurtubi, 19/197.
[4] Qurtubi, 19/197.
[5] Tabrisi, 10/606.
[6] Kafi, 3/259; Nur, 5/465.