Tafseer of The Splitting Open · Al-Inshiqaaq · 84:19
[That] you will surely experience state after state.
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 statement: لَتَرْكَبُنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ ("you shall surely mount state after state"). The Qurʾān reciters differed over its reading. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, Ibn Masʿūd and his companions, Ibn ʿAbbās, and most of the reciters of Mecca and Kūfa read it as لَتَرْكَبَنَّ with a fatḥa on the tāʾ and the bāʾ. And those reciters who read it thus likewise differed over its meaning. Some of them said: you, O Muḥammad, shall surely mount state after state, and matter after matter of the grievous trials.
* Mention of who said that:
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Abū Bishr informed us, on the authority of Mujāhid, that Ibn ʿAbbās used to read: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , that is: your Prophet ﷺ, state after state.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of a man who narrated it to him, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: abode after abode.
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he says: state after state.
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: لَتَرْكَبُنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , that is: abode after abode, and it is said: matter after matter, and state after state.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, saying: I heard Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: Muḥammad ﷺ.
Hannād related to us, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: state after state.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Hawdha related to us, saying: ʿAwf related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: state after state.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, saying: Ḥafṣ asked al-Ḥasan about His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: abode after abode, and state after state.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Mūsā ibn Abī ʿĀʾisha, saying: I asked Murra about His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: state after state.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: state after state.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: state after state.
He said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Naṣr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, he said: state after state.
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 of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: you shall surely mount the affairs, state after state.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he says: state after state, and abode after abode.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His statement: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ : abode after abode, and state after state.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: matter after matter.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: matter after matter.
And others among those who held to this statement and read this reading said that what was meant by it was: you, O Muḥammad, shall surely mount heaven after heaven.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, saying: al-Ḥasan and Abū al-ʿĀliya said: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ ("you shall surely mount"), that is Muḥammad ﷺ, طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ ("layer after layer"), the heavens.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Abū al-Ḍuḥā, on the authority of Masrūq: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: you, O Muḥammad, heaven after heaven.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, he said: heaven after heaven.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of ʿĀmir, on the authority of ʿAlqama, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, he said: heaven above heaven.
And others said: no, the meaning of it is: you shall surely mount the Hereafter after the first (life).
* Mention of who said that:
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: the Hereafter after the first (life).
And others among those who read this reading said: what is meant by it is only that it (the heaven) changes in various manners, at one time splitting open with the clouds and at another time becoming red, so that it becomes like a red-colored rose resembling oil, and at another time becoming like molten metal.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Qays ibn Wahb, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: the heaven is at one time like molten metal, and at one time it splits open.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: I heard Abū al-Zarqāʾ al-Hamdānī — and he is not the Abū al-Zarqāʾ who narrates concerning wiping over the socks — saying: I heard Murra al-Hamdānī say: I heard ʿAbd Allāh say concerning this verse لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: the heaven.
ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Kindī related to me, saying: ʿAlī ibn Ghurāb related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh concerning His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: it is the heaven, which becomes dust-colored and becomes red and splits open.
Abū al-Sāʾib related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, concerning His statement: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: it is the heaven, which splits open, then becomes red, then bursts apart; he said: and Ibn ʿAbbās said: state after state.
Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Masʿūdī related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, saying: ʿAbd Allāh read this reading لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: the heaven, state after state, and rank after rank.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ , he said: it is the heaven.
Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Abū Farwa, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, that he read it with a naṣb (fatḥa), he said: it is the heaven.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, he said: it is the heaven, which changes color after color.
And most of the reciters of Medina and some of the Kūfans read it لَتَرْكَبُنَّ with the tāʾ and with a ḍamma on the bāʾ, in the sense of an address to all mankind, that they shall mount the states of trial, state after state. And some of them mentioned that he read it with the yāʾ and with a ḍamma on the bāʾ, in the sense of a report about all mankind, that they shall do that.
And the correct of the readings therein, in my judgment, is: the reading of him who read it with the tāʾ and with a fatḥa on the bāʾ, because the interpretation of the people of interpretation as a whole accords with it, even though the other readings have intelligible meanings. And when the correct reading therein is what we have mentioned, then the correct interpretation is the statement of him who said: لَتَرْكَبَنَّ ("you shall surely mount"), you, O Muḥammad, state after state, and matter after matter of the grievous trials. And what is meant by it — even though the address is directed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — is all mankind, that they shall undergo, of the grievous trials of the Day of Resurrection and its terrors, states.
We said only: what is meant by it is what we have mentioned, because the words before His statement لَتَرْكَبَنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ were directed to all, and likewise what comes after it, so that it is more fitting that this should accord with what is before it and after it.
And His statement طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ is derived from the saying of the Arabs: "So-and-so fell into the daughters of ṭabaq," when a person falls into a grievous affair.
