يَقولُ الإِنسانُ يَومَئِذٍ أَينَ المَفَرُّ
That day man will say: ‘Where is the escape?’
EXEGESIS
Mafarr (escape) is derived from farra, meaning to flee. It is a verbal noun, meaning ‘an escape’, whilst mafirr is the locative noun, meaning ‘a place one can escape to, a refuge’.
EXPOSITION
The faithless and sinful humans who, in their earthly lives, dismissed the Day of Resurrection as a myth or a lie, will on that very day be confronted with its undeniable reality. The veil of their denial will be ripped away, replaced by a crushing, all-consuming awareness of their own transgressions. This awareness manifests as an intense shame and humiliation – shame for the truths they rejected and the moral commands they arrogantly flouted, and humiliation at being fully exposed, with every hidden sin laid bare before the Creator and all of creation.
In this state of utter desperation, they will instinctively seek a refuge – any shelter or hiding place – to vanish from the unbearable gaze of divine justice and to shield themselves from the weight of their own ignominy. They will crave a mountain to crumble upon them or a chasm to swallow them, anything to escape the confrontation with their own souls.
However, the earth will have permanently changed; its mountains flattened, its valleys and canyons and crevasses gone, it will be a level plain. You will not see any crookedness or unevenness in it (20:106-107). There will be no cave to hide in, no rock to crawl under. The flatlands of resurrection will be a barren featureless plain, Indeed We have made whatever is on the earth an adornment for it that We may test them [to see] which of them is best in conduct. And indeed We will turn whatever is on it into a barren plain (18:7-8). The desolate expanse man now stands in will offer no more adornment or distractions. The person who sought to distract himself from facing his own conscience in this world by engrossing himself in worldly divergences will find that the world around him offers nothing of the sort anymore, and so he must finally face the matters that he tried his best to ignore.
In this manner, the hereafter is a merger of the internal (bāṭin) and external (ẓāhir), where inner realities become manifest. The reality is that everything is in God’s kingdom and under His complete authority. This truth might be hidden to people now, but will become manifest on the Day of Judgement. There, every person will realise that there is no escape from God’s judgement, and the external world will come to reflect that reality as well, becoming a barren featureless plain, so whichever way you turn, there is the face of Allah (2:115). How could there be any escape when what man is trying to flee is the consequences of his own actions? It is impossible to flee those, since they have become a part of him and left their imprint on his soul. To try and flee them is to try and flee one’s own self, as the following verses will clarify and as the surah’s main theme has been expounding – the framework of judgement has been integrated into man’s very being and is an inescapable part of him.
One might ask: how can people on the Day of Resurrection – a day when all recognise God’s sovereign power and the futility of flight – still plead, Where is the escape? The answer is that their words are a direct reflection of their inner nature (malakāt). In that moment, their essential character is unveiled: That day you will be exposed: none of your secrets will remain hidden (69:18). Whoever, during their earthly life, instinctively sought worldly escapes instead of turning to God, will on that day be compelled by that very habit. Their plea is the involuntary cry of a soul conditioned to seek salvation everywhere but in the Almighty. Such is the power of the inner disposition acquired in this life: it even drives a person to brazenly lie to God, with the full knowledge that He comprehends all that is within them. The Quran paints a startling picture of this: The day when Allah will raise them all together, they will swear to Him, just like they swear to you [now], supposing that they stand on something. Look! They are indeed liars (58:18).
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Qurṭubī considers it possible that this statement could be said by believers as well, simply due to the intense trepidation felt on the Day of Judgement and the severity of what they witness.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- ‘People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendour of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth … They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from the fearful presence of the Lord …’
[1] See Tibyan, 10/193; Zamakhshari, 4/660.
[2] Mizan, 20/105.
[3] Qurtubi, 19/97.
[4] Isaiah 2:19-21.