Tafseer of The Resurrection · Al-Qiyaama · 75:8
And the moon darkens
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.
His word: فَإِذَا بَرِقَ الْبَصَرُ ("When the sight is then dazzled"). The Qurʾān-reciters differed over its reading. Abū Jaʿfar the reciter, Nāfiʿ, and Ibn Abī Isḥāq read it فإذَا بَرَقَ with fatḥa on the rāʾ, in the meaning of "the eye became fixed (shakhaṣa)" and stared wide open at death; while Shayba, Abū ʿAmr, and the generality of the reciters of Kūfa read it بَرِقَ with kasra on the rāʾ, in the meaning of: "it was seized by terror (fazaʿa) and split open (shuqqa)."
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to me, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Hārūn, who said: I asked Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ about that, and he said: بَرِقَ with the kasra, in the meaning of "it became bewildered (ḥāra)." He said: and I asked ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq about that, and he said: بَرَقَ with the fatḥa; for only the tomcat (al-khayṭal — according to al-Lisān: the cat, the dog), fire, and lightning "barīq" (flash/gleam). As for the eye, it "barīq-s" (stares fixedly) at death. He said: and I reported that to Ibn Abī Isḥāq, and he said: I took my reading from the old masters Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim and his companions. I mentioned that to Abū ʿAmr, and he said: but I do not take from Naṣr nor from his companions — as if he meant to say: I take from the people of the Ḥijāz.
And the more correct of the two readings therein, in our judgment, is the kasra on the rāʾ: فَإِذَا بَرِقَ in the meaning of: "it was seized by terror and split open and set wide open by the horror of the Resurrection (al-qiyāma) and the agony of death." And thus have the poems of the Arabs been transmitted. One of the transmitters recited to me on the authority of Abū ʿUbayda al-Kilābī:
"When the son of Ṣubayḥ came to me eager, I gave him a light-colored camel from it, and he stared bewildered (fa-baraq)."
And it was related to me on the authority of Abū Zakariyyā al-Farrāʾ, he said: one of the Arabs recited to me:
"Ḥanāna announced death to me, while she was a ewe that grazed on dry ʿishriq-plant; so weep for your own soul and weep not for me, and tend the wounds and be not seized by terror (lā tabraqi)" —
with fatḥa on the rāʾ. And he explained it thus: it means: be not seized by terror at the horror of the wounds you have. He said: and so the eye "barīq-s" (stares bewildered) on the Day of Resurrection.
And in the sense of what we have said about it, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
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: فَإِذَا بَرِقَ الْبَصَرُ — he means by "the dazzling of the eye": death; and the bewilderment of the eye: that is the Hour (al-sāʿa).
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 word: بَرِقَ الْبَصَرُ — he said: at death.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, his word: فَإِذَا بَرِقَ الْبَصَرُ — the eye became fixed (shakhaṣa al-baṣar).
Footnotes:
(7) Among the meanings of "al-khayṭal" in al-Lisān are: the tomcat and the dog.
(8) The rajaz verse is among the citation-witnesses of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān (folio 182) at His word, the Exalted: فإذا برق البصر . Abū Zakariyyā al-Tibrīzī cited it in Tahdhīb Iṣlāḥ al-manṭiq (Cairo edition, 75) and said: al-baraq (with vowel movement) means: that the eye "barīq-s," namely that it becomes confused without blinking. Al-Aʿwar ibn Barrāʾ al-Kilābī — of Kilāb-Murra — said: "When the son of Ṣubayḥ came to me ..." — the verse. And there belongs to it another verse, namely:
"I gave him [a she-camel] with sturdily built vertebrae, swift of upper arms, with a long neck."
Ṣubayḥ said: he was of Hilāl ibn ʿĀmir, and al-Aʿwar was his maternal uncle. Ibn Ṣubayḥ asked al-Aʿwar [for a gift], and he gave him a she-camel from his herd; the Hilālī went off with it and lampooned al-Aʿwar by saying:
"You gave me [a she-camel] with worn-down molars; if she were to chew eggs, they would not crack" —
along with other verses. Thereupon al-Aʿwar answered him with a poem in which the two previously mentioned verses occur. Al-daʾayāt: the vertebrae, singular daʾya. Al-ḍabʿān: the two upper arms. Wa-māʾirat al-ḍabʿayn: that is to say: swift. Al-saṭʿāʾ: the long-necked one. End [quotation].
And in (al-Lisān, lemma barq): "wa-baraq baṣaruhu barqan" (like faraḥa-faraḥan) and "baraq yabruqu burūqan" (like qaʿada-yaqʿudu quʿūdan) — this latter on the authority of al-Liḥyān: he was bewildered so that he did not see. And one says: he became confused so that he did not blink. And in the Revelation: فإذا برق البصر ; and "baraq" (from the two paradigms faraḥa and qaʿada) — both are read. End. And al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (349): and His word فإذا برق البصر — al-Aʿmash, ʿĀṣim, al-Ḥasan, and some people of Medina read it "bariqa" with kasra on the rāʾ. And Nāfiʿ al-Madanī read it "baraqa al-baṣar" with fatḥa on the rāʾ, derived from al-barīq for one who opens his eyes wide, that is to say: it became fixed. And his word "bariqa" (with the kasra) means: it was seized by terror. End.
(9) The two verses are in the Dīwān of Ṭarafa (Adrianople/"k"-edition, year 1909, p. 15). He said: and he composed them concerning the camels of his brother, which were at the watering-place of Imruʾ al-Qays; Ḥanāna the chamberlain leapt up to strike him, whereupon Ṭarafa drew his sword. He composed about that, and al-Shantamarī did not transmit them. And in (al-Lisān, lemma ḥnn): "wa-Ḥanāna" is the name of a shepherd in the verse of Ṭarafa: "Ḥanāna announced death to me ..." — the verse. Ibn Barrī said: Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ transmitted it as "baghānī Ḥanāna," with the bāʾ and the dotted ghayn. But the correct one is: with the nūn and the undotted ʿayn, as it occurs in the foundational manuscripts, on the grounds of his word after this verse: "so weep for your own soul ..." — the verse. And in (al-Lisān, lemma ṭbl): al-ṭūbāla is the ewe. End. And one reads the [word] in the accusative as a reproach against him, as if he said: I mean a ewe. Wa-tasuffu: she eats. Al-ʿishriq: a plant well known among them. And his word "lā tabraq" al-Lisān explains thus: be not seized by terror at the horror of the wounds you have; and the commentator of the aforementioned Dīwān explained it as: that is to say, do not threaten me. And al-Farrāʾ explained it in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (349) and said: and his word برق means "to be seized by terror"; one of the Arabs recited to me: "Ḥanāna announced death to me ..." — the two verses — with fatḥa on the rāʾ, that is to say: be not seized by terror at the horror of the wounds you have. End.
