بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ
وَالنّازِعاتِ غَرقًا
By those [angels] who wrest [the soul] violently.
EXEGESIS
Gharq and ighrāq mean to do something in excess; hence the expression gharqan further qualifies the wresting action as being highly intense and profoundly thorough, such that nothing is left behind.
From a purely linguistic perspective, verse 1 can refer to any one of: 1. The angels of death that wrest the souls from the bodies. 2. Death, which wrests the souls from the bodies. 3. The stars that shoot from one horizon to disappear into another. 4. The arrow that is launched after being tightly pulled into the bow of those who fight in the way of God.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- Ali ibn Mahziyār reports that he asked Imam al-Bāqir (a) about verses such as By the night when it envelops, by the day when it brightens (92:1-2), and By the star when it sets (53:1), and the like. The Imam said: ‘It is for God, the most high, to swear by whatever and whomever He wishes of His creation; whereas His creation has not but to swear by Him.’
- It is narrated that Imam Ali (a) said in explaining By those who wrest violently: ‘It is the angels that wrest the souls of the disbelievers from their bodies with great intensity, like an arrow that is launched after being drawn to its deepest point in the bow; as such they find themselves flung into the heart of hellfire.’
[1] Mizan, 20/179.
[2] Tabrisi, 10/651, narrated from Masrūq.
[3] Tabrisi, 10/651, narrated from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) and Mujāhid.
[4] Tabrisi, 10/651, narrated from Hasan al-Baṣrī, Qatādah, Abū ʿUbaydah, al-Akhfash, and Jubbāʾī.
[5] Tabrisi, 10/652, narrated from ʿAṭāʾ and ʿIkramah.
[6] Mizan, 20/194.
[7] Nur, 5/497, h. 4.