When the indisputable Event [of the Last Hour] occurs, no one then shall belie its occurrence!
These two lines are among the most unforgettable opening verses of any chapter in the Quran. They belong, of course, to the chapter of Al- Waaqi `ah. The Arabic word 'waaqi'ah' means `event,’ ‘happening,' or `occurrence’.
The revelation of this chapter took that meaning, made it definite, and transformed it for all time into an explicit name for the end of time - and what a name it is! For it tells us that despite all our trepidation, doubts, or misgivings, this cataclysmic close to all life in the world and to the world we all live in is surely coming. By the definition of the word that names this chapter, as well as according to its Divine promise, ready or not, this event is "happening."
But an Arabic word is not all this chapter alters. Anyone who measures out its meanings in the chant of a still night, his heart will change, and change utterly. "If one would know the fateful tidings of the foremost and the least of humanity, of Heaven's inhabitants and the tenants of Hell, of this world's denizens and the dwellers of the Hereafter, let him read the chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah." So said Masrooq, the famed savant of the Quran from the generation that succeeded that of the Prophet thus known as the Successors.
Truly spoken are Masrooq's words, sum¬ming up the chapter brilliantly in its message, capturing also the indelible impression it left upon its Messenger, Muhammad for it is known that he remained specially preoccupied with this chapter for the duration of his mission.
A Bridge Between
In the sequence of the Quran's gradual revelation to the Prophet the chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah (56) came after the chapter of Taa Haa (20) and before the chapter of Ash-Shu'araa’ (26).
Both these chapters form a strong, nearly continuous exhortation to the Prophet to two ends: (1) To persevere in delivering Allah's Message, like the prophets, may Allah exalt their mention, who preceded him—and above all, Moses, may Allah exalt his mention, whose Divine charge the Prophet's own mission would spectacularly fulfill and to whose commission his own was so closely linked; (2) These illustrations seek to uplift and spur on the spirit of the Prophet up from his acute distress and out of the profound sense of sorrow he felt for a deluded people, blindly implacable in their opposition to his call to no other end but Hellfire.
Yet just before its own close, the chapter of Taa Haa turns from its attentive account of the life-struggle of Moses, may Allah exalt his mention, first against Pharaoh, tyrant of the earth, and then against the recalcitrant among his delivered but soon-fallen people. Up and away it suddenly whisks us to the shattering event of the flattening of the earth and the ensuing resurrection. Swiftly it summons us to the pulverized plane of the Judgment Day, utterly leveled without curve or wave.
The chapter of Ash-Shu'araa’, in a brief verse after its opening, picks up this same theme: Forever separated in the next life are the beliers from the believers by the most damning of Divine Judgments gone forth in the world.
In between these two chapters and linking up their worldly themes descends the chapter of Al-Waaqi`ah as an extended exposition spanning the event of the end of this world and the beginning of the next. It suspends in time, before our minds for consideration, the decisive epoch of life we are all destined to live in the Hereafter based upon our earthly reaction to Divine Revelation and the brotherhood of prophets, may Allah exalt their mention, who have delivered it.
In literary terms, the chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah forms an otherworldly interlude between the breathless scenes of life's drama and trauma that emerge almost without intermission in the chapters of Taa Haa and Ash-Shu'araa’. Their two narratives saturate the heart with heavy concern for the harrowing earthly days that conspire to daunt all who would carry the mission of the prophets and don the mantle of Muhammad . Yet even these anxious illustrations simply fade to insignificance in the face of the almost matter-of-fact case for the life to come made by the chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah. In the idiom of the soul, the chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah lays it all down for the believers. It gives them an ironclad and relentlessly awe-inspiring rationale for enduring the most shocking descent of unbelieving man into brutal bestialism; for it rivets the believers' attention, with anticipation and trepidation, on the beginning of an everlasting bliss that lies exalted, beyond the abasing end of a hasty world.
Little wonder, then, that when Abu Bakr, the Prophet's great friend to the end, may Allah be pleased with him, pointed to the silver traces that seemed so suddenly to shine from the Prophet's head, Muhammad, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, said: "Grey have [the revelations of] Hood and Al-Waaqi'ah rendered me."
Ever in his prayer, and especially before morning would break upon the world in the fading hour of the dawn office, the Prophet was moved to recite Al-Waaqi'ah. For, indeed, it bears to the human ear the very uttermost end of intelligence reports about the Afterlife that the heart of man beats so restlessly to know.
Human beings aspire to discover the secrets of life and death, to uncover the origins of our own existential mystery. We would unfurl the scrolls of all time if we could and replay the events of history.
To unravel the wonders that wheel through the heavens, to sunder the foundations of an earth old beyond ancient, to know intimately the orders that unleash life's complexity ¬¬– upon this all the might of the human intellect has ever been. In its quest, time out of mind, and sums of wealth and resources above the calculable have been spent.
How, then, are the thoughts of so vast a number of people turned away from what Heavenly Revelation unveils for them freely, concerning the great truths of life and their own inevitable destiny, and about the conditions that will prevail at the ending of the world and the beginning of eternity?