بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

هَل أَتاكَ حَديثُ الغاشِيَةِ

Has there come to you the account of the Enveloper?

EXEGESIS

Al-ghāshiyah (the Enveloper) is from ghashāwah, meaning to cover up, wrap, envelope, descend upon, and overwhelm. That which surrounds another and envelopes it from all sides is said to overwhelm it (ghāshin lahu).^{‎[1]Razi, 31/138.} The Quran even uses it as a euphemism for sexual union, when a man ‘covers’ his wife and conception occurs (7:189). The term also suggests the meaning of ghashy which to faint and lose consciousness, an apt term for a terrifying day that would bring humankind and all of creation close to swooning.

EXPOSITION

The verse is given as a question because it employs the Arabic convention to draw attention to what follows,^{‎[2]Abdel Haleem, 88:1.} or perhaps as a rhetorical question it emphasises and implies: There has indeed come to you, O Muhammad, the account of the Enveloper.^{‎[3]Alusi, 15/324; Qummi, 2/418; Tabrisi, 10/725, and many others, who have all said the interrogative particle hal here implies qad (indeed).}

The pronoun you in has there come to you is in the singular, believed by most exegetes to address the Prophet personally as if to highlight the importance of the Day of Judgement. Makārim Shīrāzī notes that though some exegetes have suggested the singular pronoun here may be an address to all humankind (by implication), this is improbable here as the question is intentionally asked of the Prophet to highlight the seriousness and importance of al-ghāshiyah.^{‎[4]Nemuneh, 26/414.}

The Enveloper, in the surah’s context, is understood to be a reference to the Day of Judgement and to be one of its many names in the Quran. Each name (see 75:1) gives us an idea of the state of affairs on that day. In the case of the Enveloper, it speaks of a day that covers, envelops, and overwhelms all of creation; and man will all but swoon, i.e. experience ghashy, at the magnitude of its calamity and in the experience of Reality. It is an event when all that man has ever seen and experienced in the life of this world will seem trivial before the Reality he witnesses and what awaits him.

Rāzī has summarised three ways in which the Day of Resurrection will overwhelm creation: first, because it will come about suddenly and without warning (12:107); second, it will overwhelm (taghshā) everyone, from the first to the very last, and none can escape it (18:47); and third, it will overwhelm humanity with unique circumstances and hardships^{‎[5]Razi, 31/138.} and in its grandeur.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. Someone asked Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) concerning the opening verses of this surah, Has there come to you the account of the Enveloper? He replied: ‘[It means] the one who will rise [al-Qāʾim] will overwhelm them [yaghshāhum] with the sword.’ The reporter asked: ‘[What about] Some faces on that day will be humbled [88:2]?’ He replied: ‘[It means] vanquished, unable to defend themselves.’ The reporter asked: ‘[What about] Toiling [ʿāmilatun] [88:3]?’ He said: ‘[It means] acted on other than what Allah revealed.’ The reporter asked: ‘[What about] weary [nāṣibah] [88:3]?’ He replied: ‘[It means] they planted [naṣabat] one other than the master of the affair [wulāt al-amr].’ The reporter asked: ‘[What about] They will enter a scorching fire [88:4]?’ He said: ‘[It means] they will enter the fire of war [nār al-ḥarb] in this world, in the Qāʾim’s era, and fire of hell in the hereafter.’^{‎[6]Kafi, 15/136, h. 14828.}
2. Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said concerning the verse Has there come to you the account of the Enveloper: ‘It means those who cover up (yaghshawna) the [rightful] Imam.’^{‎[7]Kafi, 15/427, h. 15016.}

Note: Such traditions are not taken to be the original context and interpretation for the verse’s revelation, even by the Shia, but are understood as being from the flow (min bāb al-jary), meaning an instance of the many possible interpretations of a Quranic verse that was reported from the Prophet or one of his rightful successors from his household and the repositories of his knowledge. This concept is explained in detail under the Insights from Hadith for 3:7.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

There is a less-favoured opinion that al-ghāshiyah may refer to hellfire rather than the Day of Judgement. This is because hellfire also covers and overwhelms its inmates (7:41, 14:50, 29:55),^{‎[8]Alusi, 15/324; Tabrisi, 10/725; Thalabi, 10/187.} at times in layers closing upon them (39:16, 104:6-9).

But, as Ālūsī rightly points out, this is unlikely the reference here because, as shall be seen in the following verses, the surah does not speak of hellfire and its inmates exclusively, but also recounts the pleasures of paradise and the blissful state of its inhabitants.^{‎[9]Alusi, 15/324.}

Other, lesser-known interpretations offered for al-ghāshiyah include the hour of doom (al-sāʿah)^{‎[10]Suyuti, 6/342; Tabari, 30/101.} – when the world ends – and the moment of death^{‎[11]Ibn Arabi, 2/427.} for every individual.

As for the hour, it will indeed come about suddenly and none but God knows its time (31:34), and all in the heavens and the earth will swoon (39:68); however, the next verse commences with some faces on that day … This makes it clear that al-ghāshiyah in this first verse introduces and refers to that day mentioned in verse 2, which cannot be the moment the world ends.

As for al-ghāshiyah referring to the time of death, there is more room for its acceptance (as another layer of interpretation). This is because death is often referred to as the minor resurrection (al-qiyāmah al-ṣughrā), contrasted with the Day of Judgement as the major resurrection (al-qiyāmah al-kubrā). See, for example, Mulla Sadra’s comparison of the two and the parallel he draws for death to the Resurrection Day under the Exposition of 82:1.

Thus, Ibn Arabi, after acknowledging the common understanding that al-ghāshiyah is the major resurrection or what he calls ‘the catastrophe that will overwhelm mankind with its hardship and blanket all forms of existence and annihilate them with the radiating and manifesting light of God’s essence, such that people will be unveiled to a day that divides all of mankind into the wretched and the felicitous’, goes on to suggest that it also alludes to the minor resurrection (death) that overwhelms and blankets the mind with the pangs of death and covers the one overwhelmed (al-maghshī) with its circumstances, such that people on that day are also overwhelmed, and either doomed or saved.^{‎[12]Ibn Arabi, 2/427.}

[1] Razi, 31/138.
[2] Abdel Haleem, 88:1.
[3] Alusi, 15/324; Qummi, 2/418; Tabrisi, 10/725, and many others, who have all said the interrogative particle hal here implies qad (indeed).
[4] Nemuneh, 26/414.
[5] Razi, 31/138.
[6] Kafi, 15/136, h. 14828.
[7] Kafi, 15/427, h. 15016.
[8] Alusi, 15/324; Tabrisi, 10/725; Thalabi, 10/187.
[9] Alusi, 15/324.
[10] Suyuti, 6/342; Tabari, 30/101.
[11] Ibn Arabi, 2/427.
[12] Ibn Arabi, 2/427.