Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:108
That Day, everyone will follow [the call of] the Caller [with] no deviation therefrom, and [all] voices will be stilled before the Most Merciful, so you will not hear except a whisper [of footsteps].
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The discourse concerning the explanation of the words of Allah the Exalted: يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَّبِعُونَ الدَّاعِيَ لا عِوَجَ لَهُ وَخَشَعَتِ الأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَنِ فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا ("On that day they will follow the Caller, with no deviation from him; and the voices fall silent before the Most Merciful, so that you hear nothing but a whisper") (20:108)
Allah the Exalted says: On that day the people follow the voice of the caller of Allah who summons them to the standing-place of the Resurrection and drives them together toward it. لا عِوَجَ لَهُ — He says: there is no deviation for them from it and no turning aside; rather, they hasten toward it all together. It is said, "no deviation from it," while the meaning is "no deviation for them from it" — for the meaning of the words is as we have mentioned, namely that they do not deviate from it and do not go away from it, but they keep oriented toward it and come to it. As one says in Arabic: he called me with a call from which I cannot deviate — that is: I do not deviate from it.
His word وَخَشَعَتِ الأصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَنِ — Allah the Exalted says: the voices of the creatures fell silent before the Most Merciful; the voices are described with khushūʿ (humble submission), but the actual meaning concerns those who possess voices: they are all submissive toward their Lord, so that you hear from no speaker a word unless the Most Merciful has given him permission.
As ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, his word وَخَشَعَتِ الأصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَنِ : he says: they fell silent.
His word فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا — he says:
That is the tramping of the feet toward the place of gathering; the original meaning is: a muffled sound. One says: so-and-so whispered his speech to so-and-so — when he breathed it to him and concealed it. From this comes the verse of the rajaz poet:
"And they go among us, the hamīsā — if the bird-omens speak truth, we shall possess Lamīsā"
by hamīsā he means: the sound of the foot-pads of the camels when walking.
In the same sense as we have said, the exegetes spoke.
Mention of those who said this:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAlī ibn ʿĀbis related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he said: the tramping of the feet.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his word وَخَشَعَتِ الأصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَنِ فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he means: the hamsa of the feet, that is tramping.
ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās: فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he says: the muffled sound.
Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā al-Suddī related to us, saying: Sharīk informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aṣfahānī, on the authority of ʿIkrima: فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he said: the tramping of the feet.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sulaymān related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he said: the hamsa of the feet.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا — Qatāda said: al-Ḥasan used to say: the tramping of the feet of the people.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Najīḥ related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, regarding his word فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he said: murmuring; and he said: muffled speech.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, his word (hamsan): he said: a muffled voice.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: he said: a muffled voice; he said: and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr informed me on the authority of Mujāhid: he said: the spoken word of the person that you do not hear, the movement of his lips and his tongue.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, his word فَلا تَسْمَعُ إِلا هَمْسًا : he says: you hear nothing but walking; he said: walking is the hamsa, the tramping of the feet.
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Notes:
(2) This verse is what Ibn ʿAbbās cited; al-Suyūṭī took it up in al-Itqān, as did many commentators, and the author as well; and the author of (al-Lisān: hamsa) took up the first half: "And they go among us, the hamīsā." He said: that is the sound of the shifting of the camels' foot-pads. And he said at the beginning of the entry: al-hamsa is: the muffled sound, the tramping, and eating. And in the Qurʾān: "so that you hear nothing but a whisper." And in al-Tahdhīb: he means by this — and Allah knows best — the sound of the feet on the ground. Al-Farrāʾ said: it is said that it is the shifting of the feet toward the place of gathering. And it is said: the muffled sound. And it is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he cited the verse: "And they go among us, the hamīsā."
