Tafseer of Yaseen · Yaseen · 36:49
They do not await except one blast which will seize them while they are disputing.
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 explanation of the meaning of His statement, the Exalted: مَا يَنْظُرُونَ إِلا صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً تَأْخُذُهُمْ وَهُمْ يَخِصِّمُونَ (49) — "They await only a single cry, which will seize them while they dispute" (36:49).
The Exalted says: these polytheists (mushrikīn), who wish to hasten the punishment with which Allah threatens them, await only a single cry which will seize them — and that is the blast upon the trumpet of terror at the coming of the Hour.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes have spoken, and the traditions have been transmitted.
* The mention of who said that, and what traditions exist concerning it:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Ibn Abī ʿAdī and Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, both saying: ʿAwf ibn Abī Jamīla related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Mughīra al-Qawwās, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: Indeed, the trumpet will be blown while the people are upon their roads, in their markets, and in their assemblies — to such an extent that a garment will be between two men haggling over its price, and neither of them will let it go from his hand before the trumpet is blown; and to such an extent that a man will leave his house in the morning and not return before the trumpet is blown. That is what Allah spoke of: ( مَا يَنْظُرُونَ إِلا صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً تَأْخُذُهُمْ وَهُمْ يَخِصِّمُونَ فَلا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ تَوْصِيَةً ) — "They await only a single cry, which will seize them while they dispute, and then they will not be able to make a bequest" ... to the end of the verse.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda ( مَا يَنْظُرُونَ إِلا صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً تَأْخُذُهُمْ وَهُمْ يَخِصِّمُونَ ): It has been related to us that the Prophet ﷺ used to say: "The Hour breaks upon the people while a man is watering his cattle, and a man is repairing his drinking-trough, and a man is setting out his merchandise in his market, and a man is lowering and raising his scales — and it breaks upon them while they are in that condition, and then they can neither make a bequest nor return to their families."
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement ( مَا يَنْظُرُونَ إِلا صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً ): he said: It is the blast, a single blast.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Rāfiʿ, on the authority of someone whom he named, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "When Allah had finished with the creation of the heavens and the earth, He created the trumpet and gave it to Isrāfīl. And he holds it to his mouth, his gaze fixed upon the Throne, awaiting when he is commanded." Abū Hurayra said: O Messenger of Allah, what is the trumpet? He said: "A horn." He said: And how is it? He said: "An immense horn, into which it is blown three times: the first is the blast of terror, the second is the blast of falling dead (al-ṣaʿq), and the third is the blast of rising for the Lord of the worlds. Allah commands Isrāfīl with the first blast and says: Blow the blast of terror. Then the inhabitants of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth are seized with terror, except whom Allah wills. And Allah commands him, and he makes it continue and prolongs it, without it slackening. That is what Allah speaks of: وَمَا يَنْظُرُ هَؤُلاءِ إِلا صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً مَا لَهَا مِنْ فَوَاقٍ — 'And these await only a single cry, which has no respite.' Then Allah commands Isrāfīl with the blast of falling dead, and says: Blow the blast of falling dead. Then the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth fall down dead, except whom Allah wills, and behold, they are extinguished. Then He causes to die whoever remained. And when none remains except Allah, the One, the Eternal (al-Ṣamad), He changes the earth into another earth, and the heavens likewise, and He spreads it out and levels it, and stretches it out as the ʿUkāẓī leather is stretched, so that one sees in it no crookedness and no unevenness. Then Allah commands the creation with a single command, and behold, they find themselves in this changed earth in the same places as in the first: what was in its interior was in its interior, and what was upon its back was upon its back."
The Qurʾān reciters differed in the recitation of His statement ( وَهُمْ يَخِصِّمُونَ ). Some reciters of Medina recited it as (وَهُمْ يَخْصّمُون), with a sukūn on the khāʾ and a doubling (tashdīd) of the ṣād, thereby combining two unvowelled letters, in the sense of yakhtaṣimūn ("they dispute"); then they assimilated the tāʾ into the ṣād and made of it a doubled ṣād, and left the khāʾ upon its original sukūn. Some reciters of Mecca and Basra recited it as (وَهُمْ يَخَصّمُون), with a fatḥa on the khāʾ and a doubling of the ṣād, in the sense of yakhtaṣimūn, except that they transferred the vowel-movement of the tāʾ — namely the fatḥa that occurs in yaftaʿilūn — onto the khāʾ, and thereby moved it, and assimilated the tāʾ into the ṣād and doubled it. Some reciters of Kūfa recited it as ( يَخِصِّمُونَ ), with a kasra on the khāʾ and a doubling of the ṣād: they gave the khāʾ a kasra on account of the kasra of the ṣād, and assimilated the tāʾ into the ṣād and doubled it. Others among them recited it as (يَخْصِمُون), with a sukūn on the khāʾ and a light (undoubled) ṣād, in the sense of yafʿilūn from khuṣūma (dispute). It is as though the meaning, according to whoever recites thus, is: as though they are speaking; or the meaning according to him is: as though they, in their own judgement, overcame in the dispute the one who promised them the coming of the Hour and the arrival of the Resurrection, and got the better of him in the argument concerning it.
And the correct judgement concerning this, in our view, is that these are well-known and recognized recitations among the reciters of the cities, which are close to one another in meaning. With whichever of them the reciter recites, he has acted correctly.
