Surah Al-Ghashiyah (The Overwhelming Event)

It has twenty-six verses and is Meccan.

Verse 1-3:

Al-Ghāshiyah: (1-3) Has the news of the Overwhelming Event reached you?

In His saying, {Has the news of the Overwhelming Event reached you?}, there are two issues:

Issue 1: The Meaning of Al-Ghāshiyah (The Overwhelming Event)

There are several interpretations regarding the meaning of Al-Ghāshiyah:

1. It refers to the Day of Resurrection (Qiyāmah). This is supported by the verse: {The Day when the punishment will cover them} (Al-'Ankabūt: 55). It is named this because what surrounds something from all sides envelops it (ghāshin). The Day of Resurrection is described this way for three reasons:
   • It will come upon creation suddenly, as in {Or do they feel safe that a calamity from Allah might come upon them} (Yūsuf: 107).
   • It will cover all people, both the first and the last generations.
   • It will cover people with terrors and severe hardships.

2. It refers to the Fire (Hell). This means the Fire will cover the faces of the disbelievers and the people of the Fire, as stated in {And the Fire will cover their faces} (Ibrāhīm: 50) and {Above them will be coverings of fire} (Al-A'rāf: 41). This view is held by Sa'īd ibn Jubayr and Muqātil.

3. It refers to the people of the Fire themselves, whom they will enter and fall into.

The first interpretation (the Day of Resurrection) is the closest, because under that assumption, the meaning becomes that on the Day of Resurrection, some people will be in misery, and some in bliss.

Issue 2: The Use of the Interrogative "Has it reached you?"

The reason Allah said, {Has it reached you?}, is that Allah informed His Messenger (peace be upon him) about the state of that Event and the state of the people therein in a detail that neither he nor his people knew fully. Reason can only indicate that the state of the disobedient differs from the state of the obedient, but it cannot reveal the specifics of those details. Since Allah informed him of the specifics of those conditions, it is appropriate that He said, {Has the news of the Overwhelming Event reached you?}.

Regarding His saying, {Faces, that Day, humbled * Laboring, weary}, know that this is a description of the people of misery. There are two issues concerning this:

Issue 1: The Meaning of "Faces" and the Attributes

The intended meaning of "faces" is the people themselves (the disbelievers). This is evidenced by Allah describing these faces as khāshi'ah (humbled), ʿāmilah (laboring), and nāṣibah (weary). These are attributes of a responsible agent (mukallaf), but humility (khushūʿ) manifests on the face, so it was attributed to the face, similar to {Faces, that Day, radiant} (Al-Qiyāmah: 22).

• {Khāshi'ah} (Humbled): Meaning disgraced, overcome by shame and contempt, as in {And if you could but see when the criminals hang their heads, [saying], "Our Lord, we have seen and heard, so return us [to the world]} (As-Sajdah: 12), and {And you see them presented before it, humbled by the degradation, looking with a furtive glance} (Ash-Shūrā: 41). Humiliation appears on the face because it is the opposite of arrogance, whose seat is the head and the brain.
• {ʿĀmilah} (Laboring): Meaning those who perform deeds.
• {Nāṣibah} (Weary/Toiling): Meaning continuous exertion in work accompanied by fatigue.

Issue 2: The Timing of These Attributes

There are three possible ways to interpret when these three attributes apply:

1. All attributes apply in the Hereafter. The disbelievers on the Day of Resurrection will be humbled because they were arrogant in the world regarding the worship of Allah. They will be laboring because they will be performing deeds in the Fire that exhaust them, such as dragging heavy chains and shackles (as in {In a chain whose length is seventy cubits} (Al-Hāqqah: 32)), wading through the Fire like camels in mud (sometimes rising, sometimes sinking), plunging into the intense heat of Hell, and standing naked, barefoot, hungry, and thirsty in the gathering places before entering the Fire on a Day whose measure is a thousand years. They will be toiling because they will constantly be engaged in that work. Al-Hasan said: These attributes should have been fulfilled in the world for the sake of Allah; since they were not, Allah subjects them to them on the Day of Resurrection as a form of punishment.

2. All attributes apply in the world. It is said that this refers to the monks, Jews, Christians, idolaters, and Magians. The meaning is that they humbled themselves to Allah, performed deeds, and toiled in their acts of worship, such as continuous fasting and constant night vigil. However, because they believed things about Allah that were unfitting, it is as if they obeyed a being described by the attributes they imagined. In reality, they did not worship Allah; rather, they worshipped that imagined entity which has no existence. Therefore, their worship benefits them not at all.

3. Some attributes apply in this world, and some in the Hereafter. There are several possibilities here:
   • Humbled in the Hereafter, but Laboring and Toiling in the world. This means their labor and toil in the world did not benefit them. It is not impossible for them to be described by some attributes of the Hereafter, then some attributes of the world, and then return to the Hereafter, provided the meaning is clear. It is as if Allah is saying: On the Day of Resurrection, faces will be humbled because in the world they were laboring and toiling in deeds not for the obedience of Allah, so they will consequently enter a fiercely burning Fire in the Hereafter.
   • Humbled and Laboring in the world, but Toiling in the Hereafter. Their humility in the world was out of fear, leading them to turn away from worldly pleasures and good things. Their labor was their prayer and fasting. Their toil in the Hereafter is enduring the punishment, as Allah says, {And there will appear to them from Allah that which they had not expected} (Az-Zumar: 47).
   • A variant reading suggests that ʿāmilah nāṣibah (laboring, toiling) is read as an insult/curse.

Know that after describing them with these three attributes, Allah then explained the nature of their dwelling, drink, and food—may Allah protect us from them.

{They will enter a fiercely burning Fire.}

As for their dwelling, it is His saying: {They will enter a fiercely burning Fire.}