وَاليَومِ المَوعودِ
By the Promised Day.
EXEGESIS
Mawʿūd (promised) is the passive participle derived from the root waʿd, meaning to promise regarding something, whether for good or ill. Here it intends the Day of Judgement as in other places in the Quran. Unlike human promises that are contingent on circumstances (such as a mawʿid, or appointment, that one might miss due to illness or forgetfulness), divine promises are unconditional and inevitable. When God promises something, that is an inevitability, Indeed Allah does not break His promise (3:9).
EXPOSITION
Making an oath by the Day of Judgement is a reminder that no oppression or wickedness will be left unanswered, just like no good deed will be left unrewarded. God has promised to recompense everyone based on their actions. A final judgement is inevitable for all.
This verse immediately follows the oath by the sky with its houses (burūj), drawing a contrast between the heavens as an ordered, guarded realm, and the Promised Day as the moment when cosmic justice will be realised. Just as the heavens are divinely maintained, the moral order of the universe will also be upheld on the Last Day, ensuring that no act of oppression remains unpunished. If previous surahs (81:2, 81:11, 82:1, 84:1) emphasised the chaotic nature of the heaven in the events leading up to the Day of Judgement, our attention is now called to how from this chaos there will arise another day of order. In this day the chaotic nature of this world where good and evil is mixed together will be ended and they will be forever separated and a new ordered creation will set in, in which the righteous will no longer have to suffer harm from the evildoers.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.
[1] Tahqiq, 13/157, w-ʿ-d.
[2] Qummi, 2/413; Thalabi, 10/165. This meaning is also related in a prophetic hadith (Tibyan, 10/316; Tabari, 30/82).
[3] Psalms 50:6.