إِنّا نَخافُ مِن رَبِّنا يَومًا عَبوسًا قَمطَريرًا
Indeed we fear from our Lord a day, frowning and fateful.’
EXEGESIS
The Day of Judgement is described as ʿabūs (frowning), to metaphorically describe how it reveals itself to the sinners and criminals with its full severity.
Qamṭarīr (fateful) is the immensely arduous. In Arabic, sometimes the actions and attitudes of people are attributed to the time in which they happen, like yawman ṣāʾiman wa laylan qāʾiman (a day fasting and a night keeping vigil), which means a day passed in fasting and a night spent in prayerful vigil. Likewise, ‘frowning’ and ‘arduous’ in this verse are attributed to the day of judgment while they are attributes of some people on that day. From here, another aspect of that terrible day is that it will cause the wrongdoers to have faces marked with a deep frown.
Verses 9 and 10 relay the message of the abrār to the recipients of their acts of goodness in either an exact word-for-word account, or a concise reformulation of the message, or as a description of their attitude or state of mind and heart. The key point is that the abrār wanted their recipients to know that their acts of kindness come free of obligement or injury. Indeed, Those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah and then do not follow up what they have spent with reproaches and affronts, they shall have their reward near their Lord, and they will have no fear, nor will they grieve (2:262). Notice, however, that there is no explicit mention that this was communicated verbally to anyone. Further, yaqūlūna (they are saying), is omitted. Under Insights from Hadith, some evidence will be presented to support that the message in verses 9 and 10 were not communicated verbally. Instead, it transpired to their recipients through their aura and state of heart and mind. Knowing this of them, God brought out what was in their hearts to motivate future doers of good.
Throughout verses 5-10, all of the actions of the abrār, whether in heaven or on earth, are spoken in the present tense. Instead of sa-yashrabūna (they will drink), verse 5 says yashrabūna (they drink). Instead of sa-yashrabu bihā (they will drink from it), verse 6 says yashrabu bihā (they drink from it). Likewise, the same tense is used for yūfūna (they fulfill) in verse 7, yakhāfūna (they fear) in verse 7, and yuṭʿimūna (they feed) in verse 8. Uniting these actions with the same tense expresses the reality of the embodiment of deeds where every deed performed in this life has an immediate corresponding reality in the realm of the unseen, or the hereafter.
With this understanding, verses 5-10 describe how the apparent deeds of fulfilling one’s vow and feeding the hungry for the sake of God alone is, in its deeper reality, a drink from a cup seasoned with kāfūr from a spring they make to gush forth as they please. Hence, the means by which they make the spring gush forth is the very good deeds that they performed during their life on earth. While the inner reality of each good deed is largely hidden during one’s life on earth, it becomes fully manifest upon the believer’s entry into paradise (50:22).
EXPOSITION
Here, the motives behind their actions are explained. They explain that their sincere worship of God is driven by their deep fear of that terrible day. Yet, their fear of Judgement Day is not a fear of it in its own right. Instead, they say: we fear from our Lord a day, meaning that they fear it so deeply because its provenance is from God Himself.
Verses 9 and 10 express the symmetry between their hope and their fear. Just as they have not sought other than His countenance, they do not fear other than Him. Even their fear of Judgement Day would not have been were it not that its provenance is from Him. Their expression is coherent with God’s description of their fear, in which He associates it to Judgement Day in verse 7, having associated Judgement Day to Himself earlier in verse 4. Finally, the fear of which the abrār speak is in essence the fear of accountability before God for their actions. Indeed, no matter the spiritual station of the God-wary, they always fear that appointed time when they stand before God while their deeds are being accounted for (88:25-26, 24:37). The Quran describes the spiritual duality between fear and hope that true believers experience on numerous occasions (32:16, 21:90, 7:56, 26:82).
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- Al-Durr al-Manthūr reports from Ibn Mardawayh, from Anas ibn Mālik, that the Messenger of God said about a day, frowning and fateful: ‘[That day] will cause the contraction of everything between the eyes [due to its severity].’
[1] Mizan, 20/128.
[2] Lisan, 5/116.
[3] Tabrisi, 10/617.
[4] Tabari, 29/131.
[5] Tabrisi, 10/617.
[6] Tabrisi, 10/617.
[7] Mizan, 20/126.
[8] Mizan, 20/125-126.
[9] Mizan, 20/125-126.
[10] Mizan, 20/128.
[11] Mizan, 20/128.
[12] Suyuti, 6/299.