Tafseer of The Pen · Al-Qalam · 68:42
The Day the shin will be uncovered and they are invited to prostration but the disbelievers will not be able,
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 saying of the Exalted: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ وَيُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ فَلا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ (On the Day when a shin is laid bare and they are called to prostrate themselves, but are unable to do so) (68:42).
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ (On the Day when a shin is laid bare). A group of the Companions (ṣaḥāba) of the Prophet ﷺ and of the Successors (tābiʿūn) among the people of exegesis said: it refers to the becoming manifest of a grave and perilous matter.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Muḥāribī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Usāma ibn Zayd, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: it is a day of war and peril.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: concerning a tremendous matter, as in the saying of the poet:
"And the war stood erect over us upon a shin."
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ: and there remains no believer but that he prostrates himself, while the back of the unbeliever (kāfir) stiffens so that he becomes a single bone.
And Ibn ʿAbbās used to say: it is laid bare at a tremendous matter. Do you not hear the Arabs say:
"And the war stood erect over us upon a shin."
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he says: when the matter is laid bare and the deeds become manifest; and the laying bare of it is: the entering into the Hereafter and the laying bare of the matter thereof.
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, it is the grave, dreadful matter on account of the terror on the Day of Resurrection.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Muḥāribī and Ibn Ḥumayd related to me, both of them saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: the gravity and severity of the matter. Ibn ʿAbbās said: it is the gravest hour on the Day of Resurrection.
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 — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: the gravity of the matter. Ibn ʿAbbās said: it is the first hour that there is on the Day of Resurrection — except that in the transmission of al-Ḥārith it states: and Ibn ʿAbbās said: it is the gravest hour that there is on the Day of Resurrection.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: concerning the gravity of the matter.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: concerning a dreadful, tremendous matter.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: on the Day when the gravity of the matter is laid bare.
It was related to us on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ: and Ibn ʿAbbās used to say: the people of the pre-Islamic age (jāhiliyya) used to say: "the war has laid bare its shin" — meaning thereby the approach of the Hereafter and the passing away of the world.
Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, he said: Abū al-Zahrāʾ related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh (ibn Masʿūd), he said: "Allah appears to the creatures on the Day of Resurrection, until the Muslims pass by." He said: "Then He says: 'Whom do you worship?' They say: 'We worship Allah and we ascribe no partners to Him (shirk).' Then He rebukes them twice or thrice and says: 'Do you know your Lord?' They say: 'Glory be to Him; when He makes Himself known to us, we shall recognize Him.' He said: then, at that moment, a shin is laid bare, and there remains no believer but that he falls down before Allah in prostration, while the hypocrites (munāfiqūn) remain with their backs become one single whole, as though there were iron spikes in them. They say: 'Our Lord!' And He says: 'You were called to prostration when you were yet sound.'"
Yaḥyā ibn Ṭalḥa al-Yarbūʿī related to me, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, he said: "A herald calls out on the Day of Resurrection: 'Is it not just on the part of your Lord, who created you, then fashioned you, then provided for you, while you thereafter turned to other than Him — that every servant of you should follow what he served?' They say: 'Yes indeed.' He said: then for every people their gods whom they worshipped are set up, and they follow them until they lead them into the Fire (al-nār), while the people of the call (the monotheists) remain. The one says to the other: 'What are you waiting for, the people have gone away?' They say: 'We are waiting until we are called.' Then He comes to them in a form." He said: he mentioned of that what Allah willed. "Then there is laid bare what Allah willed to lay bare." He said: "Then they fall down in prostration, except the hypocrites, for the vertebrae of their backs become a single bone like the horns of cattle. It is said to them: 'Raise your heads toward your light.'" Then he mentioned a narration that is long.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Bakr related to us, saying: al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of Qays ibn Sakan, he said: ʿAbd Allāh (ibn Masʿūd) narrated, while he was with ʿUmar, concerning يَوْمَ يَقُومُ النَّاسُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (the Day when mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds), he said: "When the Day of Resurrection comes, so he said, the people stand for forty years before the Lord of the Worlds, with their gazes fixed upward toward the heaven, barefoot and naked, while the sweat reaches up to their mouths; and no man speaks to them for forty years. Then a herald calls out: 'O people, is it not just on the part of your Lord, who created you, fashioned you and provided for you, while you thereafter worshipped other than Him — that every people should follow what it served?' They say: 'Yes.' He said: then for every people there is set up what they worshipped instead of Allah." He said: "and for every people their gods are set up, and they follow them until they cast them into the Fire; then the Muslims and the hypocrites remain. It is said: 'Will you not go away, the people have already gone away?' They say: 'Not until our Lord comes to us.' He said: 'And will you recognize Him?' They say: 'If He makes Himself known to us.' He said: then He reveals Himself, and everyone who worshipped Him falls down in prostration." He said: "and the hypocrites remain unable to do so, as though there were iron spikes in their backs." He said: "Then they are led away and driven into the Fire, and cast therein, while these (the believers) enter the Garden (janna)." He said: "Then they are received in the Garden with that wherewith they are received of reward, wives and wide-eyed houris; for each of them there is in the Garden so much and so much, with between every garden so much and so much; between the nearest of them and the farthest of them is a thousand years, and he sees the farthest of them as he sees the nearest of them." He said: "And a man of fair form comes to meet him; when he sees him approaching, he supposes that it is his Lord, but this one says to him: 'Do not do that; I am only your servant and your steward over a thousand villages.'" He said: ʿUmar says: "O Kaʿb, do you not hear what ʿAbd Allāh narrates?"
Ibn Jabala related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Abū ʿAwāna related to us, saying: Sulaymān al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Abū ʿUbayda and Qays ibn Sakan, both of them saying: ʿAbd Allāh spoke, while he was conversing with ʿUmar, and ʿUmar began to say: "Woe to you, O Kaʿb, do you not hear what ʿAbd Allāh says? 'When the people are standing on their feet for forty years, with their gazes fixed upward toward the heaven, without any man speaking to them, and the sun is above their heads until the sweat reaches up to their mouths — every righteous one and every wicked one among them — then a herald calls out from the heaven: 'O people, is it not just on the part of your Lord, who created you, provided for you and fashioned you, while you thereafter turned to other than Him — that each of you should follow what he served?' They say: 'Yes indeed.' Then a herald calls out from the heaven: 'O people, let every community betake itself to what it worshipped.'" He said: "and the mirage is spread out for them." He said: "then there is set up for them what they worshipped." He said: "then they set out until they enter the Fire. It is said to the Muslims: 'What holds you back?' They say: 'This is our place until our Lord comes to us.' It is said to them: 'Will you recognize Him when you see Him?' They say: 'If He makes Himself known to us, we shall recognize Him.'"
He said: and Abū Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ: "...until one of them turns about, and a shin is laid bare, and they fall down in prostration." He said: "and the backs of the hypocrites are riveted together until they become a single bone, as though they were the horns of cattle." He said: "it is said to them: 'Raise your heads toward your light according to the measure of your deeds.'" He said: "then a group of them raise their heads toward something like mountains of light, and they pass over the Bridge (al-Ṣirāṭ) like the blink of an eye; then another group raise their heads toward something like palaces, and they pass over the Bridge like the passing of the wind; then others raise before themselves something like houses, and they pass by like the passing of horses; then others raise toward a light less than that, and they hasten at full speed; and yet others, less than that, go forth walking, until the last of the people remains: a man upon the tip of his toe, with something like a little lamp, who at one time falls down and at another stands upright, while the Fire touches him and scorches him until he comes forth from it. Then he says: 'No one has received what has been given to me' — and he does not know from what he has been saved, except that I have felt the touch of it and felt the heat of it.'" And he mentioned a narration that is long; I have abridged this from it.
Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī related to me, saying: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hishām ibn Saʿd related to us, saying: Zayd ibn Aslam related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "When the Day of Resurrection comes, a herald calls out: 'Let every community join what it worshipped.' Then there remains no one who worshipped an idol-image, an idol or an effigy but that they go forth until they tumble into the Fire, while those remain who worshipped Allah alone, righteous and wicked, and the remnants of the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb). Then Hell (jahannam) is set up as though it were a mirage, parts of which crash against one another. Then the Jews are called, and it is said to them: 'What did you worship?' They say: 'ʿUzayr, the son of Allah.' Then He says: 'You lie; Allah has taken to Himself neither consort nor child. What then do you want?' They say: 'O our Lord, we thirst.' Then He says: 'Will you not then go in (to drink)?' And they go forth until they tumble into the Fire. Then the Christians are called, and it is said: 'What did you worship?' They say: 'The Masīḥ (Messiah), the son of Allah.' Then He says: 'You lie; Allah has taken to Himself neither consort nor child. What then do you want?' They say: 'O our Lord, we thirst, give us to drink.' Then He says: 'Will you not then go in?' And they go forth and tumble into the Fire. Then those remain who worshipped Allah, righteous and wicked." He said: "Then Allah appears to us in a form other than the form in which we saw Him the first time, and He says: 'O people, every community has joined what it worshipped, and you have remained.' And on that day none speaks to Him except the prophets, and they say: 'We left the people in the world while we were most in need of their company therein; every community has joined what it worshipped, and we are waiting for our Lord whom we worshipped.' Then He says: 'I am your Lord.' They say: 'We seek refuge in Allah from you.' Then He says: 'Is there between you and Allah a sign by which you recognize Him?' They say: 'Yes.' Then a shin is laid bare, and they all fall down in prostration; and there remains no one who prostrated in the world out of show, ostentation or hypocrisy (nifāq) but that his back becomes one single whole: whenever he wishes to prostrate, he falls upon the back of his head." He said: "Then He returns and raises up our righteous and our sinners, while He has returned to us in the form in which we saw Him the first time, and He says: 'I am your Lord.' And they say: 'Yes, You are our Lord' — three times."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me, saying: my father and Saʿīd ibn al-Layth related to me, on the authority of al-Layth, saying: Khālid ibn Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Abū Hilāl, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "His herald calls out and says: 'Let every people join what they worshipped.' Then the people of the cross go forth with their cross, and the people of the idols with their idols, and the people of every deity with their deity, until those remain who worshipped Allah, righteous and wicked, and the remnants of the People of the Book. Then Hell (jahannam) is brought, and it is set up as though it were a mirage." Then he mentioned something similar, except that he said: "'We are indeed waiting for our Lord.' He (the transmitter) said: if He has said that, then the Almighty comes to them." Then he narrated to us the narration in a manner like the narration of al-Masrūqī.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Rāfiʿ al-Madanī, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, on the authority of a man of the Anṣār, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Allah takes retribution for the wronged from the wrongdoer, until, when there remains no longer any right of anyone against anyone, Allah makes an angel of the angels in the form of ʿUzayr, and the Jews follow him; and Allah makes an angel of the angels in the form of ʿĪsā, and the Christians follow him. Then a herald calls out who makes all the creatures hear, and he says: 'Let every people join their gods and what they worshipped instead of Allah.' Then there remains no one who worshipped anything instead of Allah but that his gods are set up for him before his face, and then they lead them to the Fire, until there remains no one except the believers, among whom are the hypocrites. Then Allah, whose praise is exalted, says: 'O people, the people have gone away, the people have gone away; join your gods and what you worshipped.' They say: 'By Allah, we have no deity except Allah, and we worshipped no deity besides Him' — and it is He, Allah, who made them steadfast. Then He says to them a second time something of the like: 'Join your gods and what you worshipped.' And they say something of the like. Then it is said: 'Is there between you and your Lord a sign by which you recognize Him?' They say: 'Yes.' Then He reveals Himself to them with so much of His greatness that they recognize that He is their Lord, and they fall down before Him in prostration upon their faces, while every hypocrite falls upon the back of his head, and Allah makes their backs like the horns of cattle."
And Abū Zayd ʿUmar ibn Shabba related to me, saying: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, saying: Abū Saʿīd Rawḥ ibn Junāḥ related to us, on the authority of a freedman of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, on the authority of Abū Burda ibn Abī Mūsā, on the authority of his father, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said concerning يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ: "it refers to a tremendous light; they fall down before it in prostration."
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Bazūrī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning the saying of Allah: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: the veil is drawn away. He said: وَيُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ (and they are called to prostrate themselves) while they are sound.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Usāma ibn Zayd, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning his saying: يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ, he said: it is a day of distress and peril. And it was mentioned on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās that he used to read it as يَوْمَ تُكْشَفُ عَنْ سَاقٍ (on the Day when it — the Resurrection — lays bare a shin), in the meaning of: on the Day when the Resurrection lays bare a grave peril. The Arabs say: "this matter has laid bare a shin" when it has fallen into peril; and to that belongs the saying of the poet:
"She laid bare before them her shin, and pure evil became manifest."
And His saying: وَيُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ فَلا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ (and they are called to prostrate themselves, but are unable to do so). He says: and the laying bare of the shin calls them to prostration before Allah the Exalted, but they are not able to do so.
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Footnotes:
(9) This is a verse in the rajaz-mashṭūr metre. The author cited it in connection with the saying of the Exalted يوم يكشف عن ساق, that is to say: a tremendous matter. Abū ʿUbayda said in Majāz al-Qurʾān (folio 179): يوم يكشف عن ساق — when the war and the matter become perilous, one says: "the matter has laid bare its shin."
(10) In al-Nihāya of Ibn al-Athīr: "ghubbarāt" is the plural of "ghubr", derived from "al-ghābir", the remnant. And in al-Lisān: "and the ghubr of every thing is the remnant thereof."
(11) The verse is by the grandfather of Ṭarafa, as al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 340). He said concerning the saying of the Exalted يوم يكشف عن ساق: the reciters are in agreement upon the raising (ḍamma) of the yāʾ. And with his isnād to Ibn ʿAbbās: that he read يوم تكشف "with the tāʾ open (fatḥa)", meaning thereby the Resurrection and the Hour on account of its peril. He said: and one of the Arabs recited to me from the grandfather of Ṭarafa — and that is Saʿd ibn Mālik ibn Ḍubayʿa ibn Qays ibn Thaʿlaba, the grandfather of Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd:
"She laid bare before them her shin, and the evil became openly manifest."
And the transmission of it in al-Lisān (entry: sawq) on the authority of the Dīwān al-Ḥamāsa has "al-ṣarāḥ" in the place of "al-barāḥ".