The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Inshiqāq – Verse 19

لَتَركَبُنَّ طَبَقًا عَن طَبَقٍ

You will surely fare from stage to stage.

EXEGESIS

Latarkabunna (you will surely fare) is an emphatic form from the verb rakiba, which means to ride an animal, to board a ship, or to embark on any similar means of transport.[1] It can also be used figuratively when something ‘mounts’ something else or settles on top of it, like a person burdening himself with sins (irtkaba al-dhanb). Here it means to move and progress, although the choice of verb suggests that this action will happen in a way as if man is carried through these stages, without being able to stop this motion. Just as a rider is borne along by the mount, man is borne along by time, nature, and divine decree.

The prefix la and the suffix nna are for emphasis (translated here as surely).

Ṭabaq (stage) means to place some surface on another similar one in a way that it covers it.[2] Hence, the floor of a building is called a ṭābiq, and the generations of scholars are called ṭabaqāt. Since these levels are similar to one another, the word is also used in the sense of similarity. Therefore, taṭbīq means to follow up on something, comparing it to find similarities. The commentators usually understand it to mean ‘state’ (ḥāl)[3] or ‘stage’ (marḥalah)[4] here, which is explained in the Exposition.

EXPOSITION

This verse is the subject (jawāb) of the three previous oaths, and the address is to all mankind. It declares that mankind is constantly going from one stage to another. Considering the context of the surah, the most obvious meaning of what is intended by stages is the various stages of this life and the next. Man already knows that in this life he passes through stages: a foetus in the womb, a babe, a child, a youth, an adult, a man in his prime, then waning until he reaches old age, weakness, and senility. As we said, the verb rakiba implies being carried. Man has no influence over being born and growing up and growing old, but rather is carried through each stage.

Verse 57:20, apparently, describes these different stages in everyone’s life: Know that the life of this world is just play and diversion, and glitter (zīnah), and mutual vainglory among you, and covetousness for wealth and children (57:20). As a child, one is interested in play and diversion, then as a teenager they are concerned with their beauty and looks, and as an adult they vie for station, wealth, and offspring.

The oaths in the previous verse already set the stage for this insight. Like the transition from day to night, and the various stages the moon must go through to reach its fullness, only then to wane and fade, so too man is born, reaches full maturity, only then to decline into old age before death finally extinguishes his light from this world; It is Allah who created you from [a state of] weakness, then He gave you power after weakness. Then, after power, He ordained weakness and old age (30:54).

By drawing the reader’s attention to this, the Quran invites him to consider the significance of these stages and the wisdom in them. Man is never static, but always in motion. It beckons him to consider how God will similarly make man go through stages after death and in the hereafter, culminating in judgement and then resulting in either bliss, comfort, and honour, or difficulty, pain, and humiliation. In effect, this verse could be considered as a restatement of verse 6.

There is mercy in these stages too, for man throughout his life is given opportunities to grow, improve, repent, learn from his mistakes, mature, and strive to be better. God does not give a person only one chance, but rather He keeps giving him chances, constantly. This is probably one of the meanings alluded to in the next verse as well, where God asks why man refuses to believe and repent despite all the chances he has been given.

We would be remiss not to note the apt onomatopoeic form of this and the previous three verses, where the pace and sharp consonants and the verses ending with the reverberating qalqalah mimic a rhythmic march, mirroring how man trudges from one stage to another.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Other interpretations for this verse include:

  1. That the address is to Prophet Muhammad (s) and it means that ‘you will rise from one sky (samāʾ) to the next’,[5] intending his journey through the metaphysical realms during the Night of Ascension, like in the verse, He created seven heavens in layers (ṭibāqan) (67:3).[6] Obviously, this interpretation is based on the recitation latarkabanna in singular rather than latarkabunna in plural.
  2. To rise from one rank to another in closeness to God.[7]
  3. To experience difficulty after ease, and ease after difficulty.[8]
  4. That the Muslims should go through the same trials and experiences as previous nations, such as the Jews and Christians.[9]

These interpretations are not necessarily contradictory, and they can be included in the wide scope of the verse.[10] Nevertheless, the last interpretation is highly unlikely since the verse is addressing early Muslims in Mecca before the formation of the Muslim community in Medina. Apparently, this interpretation is inspired by a report in which the Prophet warns the Muslim community in Medina, saying: ‘You will surely follow (la tarkabunna) the ways of those who came before you, step-by-step, and one feather matching another.[11] You will not miss their path: span by span, cubit by cubit, and arm-length by arm-length, until if those before you entered the hole of a lizard, you would enter it as well.’ They said: ‘Do you mean the Jews and the Christians, O Messenger of God?’ He said: ‘Who else would I mean? You will unfasten the dressings of Islam, piece by piece. The first thing you will unfasten in your religion is Imamate,[12] and the last is prayer.’[13]

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

  1. ‘Even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. Our light affliction, which lasts but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’[14]
  2. ‘There is a specific time for everything, and an appropriate time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.’[15]
[1] Raghib, p. 363, r-k-b.
[2] Maqayis, 3/439, ṭ-b-q.
[3] See for example Tabrisi, 10/700-701; Tabari, 30/80; Thalabi, 10/161-162; Zamakhshari, 4/728; Razi, 31/102; Nemuneh, 26/315.
[4] Mizan, 20/246.
[5] This opinion is attributed to Ibn Abbas, Ibn Masʿūd, and others (Tabrisi, 10/701; Tabari, 30/79-80).
[6] Razi, 31/103.
[7] Tabrisi, 10/700. Related in Razi, 31/103.
[8] Related in Tabrisi, 10/701; Tabari, 30/80. Or variations of this such as health and sickness, wealth and poverty, and so on.

[10] Nemuneh, 26/316.
[11] Al-qudhdhatu bil-qudhdhah intending the feathers on an arrow, meaning completely even and similar. A similar expression is the hadith that mentions ‘like the teeth of a comb’.
[12] In some recensions amānah (covenant).
[13] Qummi, 2/413. See also Tibyan, 5/254, under the commentary of verse 9:69. For a similar hadith see Bukhari, 4/144; Ahmad, 2/327.
[14] 2 Corinthians 4:16-17.
[15] Ecclesiastes 3:1-2.