Tafseer of The letter Qaaf · Qaaf · 50:19
And the intoxication of death will bring the truth; that is what you were trying to avoid.
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 statement concerning the interpretation of His word, the Exalted: وَجَاءَتْ سَكْرَةُ الْمَوْتِ بِالْحَقِّ ذَلِكَ مَا كُنْتَ مِنْهُ تَحِيدُ ("And the intoxication of death comes with the truth: that is what you used to shrink from") (19).
In His word وَجَاءَتْ سَكْرَةُ الْمَوْتِ بِالْحَقِّ ("And the intoxication of death comes with the truth") there are two modes of interpretation. The first: and the intoxication of death comes—that is, its severity and its overpowering of a person's reason, like the intoxication of sleep or of drink—with the truth concerning the matter of the Hereafter, so that the person sees it clearly before him, until it makes him steadfast and he acknowledges it. And the second: and the intoxication of death comes with the reality of death.
It has been related from Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him, that he used to recite: وَجَاءَتْ سَكْرَةُ الْحَقِّ بِالْمَوْتِ ("And the intoxication of the truth comes with death").
* Mention of the narration concerning that:
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Wāṣil, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil, he said: When Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was dying, ʿĀʾisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said this, as the poet has said:
"When one day she rattles in the throat and the breast becomes constricted."
Thereupon Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Do not say that, but it is as Allah, Mighty and Exalted, has said: وَجَاءَتْ سَكْرَةُ الْمَوْتِ بِالْحَقِّ ذَلِكَ مَا كُنْتَ مِنْهُ تَحِيدُ . And it has been related that it is likewise so in the recitation of Ibn Masʿūd. For the recitation of the one who recites it thus, there are two modes of interpretation:
The first: and the intoxication of Allah comes with death, so that "the Truth" (al-Ḥaqq) is Allah, the Exalted. And the second: that the intoxication is death itself, annexed to itself, as it is said: إِنَّ هَذَا لَهُوَ حَقُّ الْيَقِينِ ("Indeed, this is the true certainty"). And the interpretation of the expression is then: and the true intoxication comes with death.
And His word: ذَلِكَ مَا كُنْتَ مِنْهُ تَحِيدُ ("that is what you used to shrink from"), He says: this intoxication which has come to you with the truth, O man, is that from which you used to flee and that which you used to evade.
Footnotes: (4) This is the second half of a line of verse; the first half reads, as in (al-Lisān: ḥ-sh-r-j): "By your life, neither abundance nor wealth avails." He said: al-ḥashraja is the repeated sound of the breath, the rattling in the breast. And in the narration about ʿĀʾisha, that she entered upon her father—may Allah be pleased with them both—at his death, and she recited: "By your life ... [the line of verse]," whereupon he said: It is not so, but rather: "And the intoxication of the truth comes with death." And that is a recitation attributed to him. And al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 309) regarding His word, the Exalted: "And the intoxication of death comes with the truth": and in the recitation of ʿAbdallāh (Ibn Masʿūd); and if you wish, you make the intoxication to be death itself, annexing it to itself, as if you say: the intoxication of the truth comes with death. End of quotation. I [the corrector] say: this line of verse is by Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, and its reading in his dīwān (London, year 1872, p. 39) reads:
"O Māwiyya, what does abundance avail the youth when one day he rattles in the throat and the breast becomes constricted."
(5) Perhaps it is "the intoxication of the truth with death," for that is the recitation of al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him, unless the other recitation is likewise related from him.
