إِلىٰ رَبِّكَ يَومَئِذٍ المَساقُ
That day he shall be driven toward your Lord.
EXEGESIS
Masāq (shall be driven) is the verbal noun of sāqa, which was discussed in the previous verse. The verse is difficult to render into English, and the most literally accurate translation is perhaps Shakir’s: ‘To your Lord on that day shall be the driving,’ or that of Saheeh International: ‘To your Lord, that Day, will be the procession.’
EXPOSITION
Toward your Lord should not be understood in a physical sense. A person is on the path towards God whether he accepts it or not. The one who begins this journey willingly in this life will finish it with dignity and grace. The one who sought to follow the path of his own desires will, on the Day of Judgement, be forcefully made to complete that journey, accompanied by humiliation and chastisement. Standing before God is inevitable, but the manner in which that will happen depends on one’s choices.
The use of the word masāq (driving) implies that there is no choice for the person on this journey. The angels are the ones doing the driving, by the command of God. They drive each soul to where God has commanded it to go. If he is from the people of paradise, then to ʿilliyyīn; and if he is from the people of the fire, then to sijjīn. Then every soul will come accompanied by a driver and a witness (50:21). For the believers, the angels are there to assist them so that their journey towards the plains of maḥshar and then paradise is as easy as possible, Those who are wary of their Lord will be led to paradise in throngs (39:73). This is why the believers will also have a light on that day that will guide them towards the maḥshar, and the faithless will not. The faithless not only have a difficult time making the journey, they will be reluctant to do so because they know that they will be dealt out a punishment breaking the spine (verse 25). Like in verses 27-28, verses 29-30 also eloquently utilise a rhyme of two words with very different meanings, but both derived from the same root.
Finally, this verse is obviously contrasted to its earlier pair, That day the abode will be toward your Lord (verse 12). In that segment, the surah was describing the movement of man, attempting to escape from judgement, and hence the meeting with God is described as settling down, mustaqarr. Here, the segment is dealing with death, which is by some viewed as an end, a final point where human life ceases and continues no more. Hence, here the meeting with God is described with a word conveying motion, masāq, a subtle reminder that the human journey does not cease and has no end point.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- In the same previously quoted hadith from Jābir ibn Yazīd al-Juʿfī, that he asked Imam al-Bāqir (a) regarding this verse, and the Imam said: ‘It is the return to the Lord of the worlds.’
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- ‘All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.’
[1] Tibyan, 10/201; Razi, 30/735. Some have said it is the ism maṣdar (for example Muhit, 10/352).
[2] Tabrisi, 10/606.
[3] Kafi, 3/259; Nur, 5/465.
[4] Matthew 25:32.