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Surah 56 · Makkah · 96 āyāt
Phase 03 · The boycott and the Year of Sorrow(c. 7–5 BH) — view in timelineAl-WāqiʿahThe Inevitable Event
الواقعة
A Makkan surah, the 46th revealed, that opens with the certainty of the Hour — 'when the Event occurs, there is no denying its occurrence' — then sorts all of mankind into three groups on that Day: the foremost (al-sābiqūn), the companions of the right, and the companions of the left. It moves between vivid scenes of each group's recompense, an argument from creation (seed, water, fire, growth) for the resurrection, an oath by the positions of the stars concerning the honour of the Qur'an, and closes by returning each dying person to one of the three groups at the moment of death itself. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb رضي الله عنه reportedly said Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah turned his hair grey.
Why it was revealed
Revealed after Quraysh's rejection had hardened but before the harshest years of persecution and the Hijrah. The surah answers unbelief not with argument alone but with unsettling, concrete imagery of what the Hour actually holds for each kind of person.
Drawn fromJāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 3297; Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 3297 (on the greying, from the ḥadīth of Hūd and its sisters); al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 56:77; Ibn Kathīr on 56:75–80; Ibn Kathīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah — the 'recite it nightly against poverty' report is graded weak by muḥaddithūn and is not a reliable basis for practice.
Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq رضي الله عنه said to the Prophet ﷺ: 'You have grown grey, O Messenger of Allah.' He ﷺ replied: 'Hūd and its sisters have made me grey — al-Wāqiʿah, al-Ḥāqqah, [Idhā] al-shams kuwwirat, and Sāʾal sāʾilun.' Separately, a widely repeated claim that reciting al-Wāqiʿah nightly wards off poverty rests on a chain judged weak (ḍaʿīf) by hadith critics; it is not attributed reliably to the Prophet ﷺ and should not be presented as an authentic promise.
Cited toJāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 3297 (on the greying, from the ḥadīth of Hūd and its sisters); Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah — the 'recite it nightly against poverty' report is graded weak by muḥaddithūn and is not a reliable basis for practice.
In the Prophet's ﷺ life
Quraysh's hardened denial of the Resurrection
By the middle Makkan years, Quraysh's rejection of a bodily resurrection had become a settled position, not mere doubt. The surah opens by declaring the Hour's occurrence beyond denial and immediately sorts humanity into three destinies.
Recalled in āyah 1, 2, 7
إِذَا وَقَعَتِ ٱلْوَاقِعَةُ
When the Occurrence occurs,
لَيْسَ لِوَقْعَتِهَا كَاذِبَةٌ
There is, at its occurrence, no denial.
وَكُنتُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا ثَلَـٰثَةً
And you become [of] three kinds:
Cited toIbn Kathīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah
- Madd — 2 vowels
- Madd — 2, 4 or 6 vowels
- Madd — 6 vowels (lāzim)
- Madd — 4 or 5 vowels (wājib)
- Ghunnah — 2 vowels
- Qalqalah
- Ikhfāʾ
- Ikhfāʾ shafawī
- Idghām shafawī
- Idghām with ghunnah
- Idghām without ghunnah
- Idghām mutajānisayn
- Idghām mutaqāribayn
- Iqlāb
- Hamzat al-waṣl
- Lām shamsiyyah
- Silent letter
Tajwīd markup and colour convention: Quran.com API (v4) — text_uthmani_tajweed. Recitation audio: Quran.com / Quran Foundation Audio API (v4).
When the Event occurs: three groups, no denial
The Hour arrives, humbling some and elevating others, shaking the earth and crumbling the mountains to scattered dust. Mankind then becomes three groups: the companions of the right, the companions of the left, and the foremost (al-sābiqūn) — those brought near, a group large from the earlier communities and few from the later ones.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
إِذَا وَقَعَتِ ٱلْوَاقِعَةُ
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When the Occurrence occurs,
لَيْسَ لِوَقْعَتِهَا كَاذِبَةٌ
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There is, at its occurrence, no denial.
خَافِضَةٌ رَّافِعَةٌ
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It will bring down [some] and raise up [others].
وَكُنتُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا ثَلَـٰثَةً
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And you become [of] three kinds:
فَأَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْمَيْمَنَةِ مَآ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْمَيْمَنَةِ
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Then the companions of the right - what are the companions of the right?
وَٱلسَّـٰبِقُونَ ٱلسَّـٰبِقُونَ
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And the forerunners, the forerunners -
أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلْمُقَرَّبُونَ
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Those are the ones brought near [to Allāh]
From the tafsīr
'Khāfiḍatun rāfiʿah' — the Event lowers some people to the Fire in disgrace and raises others to Paradise in honour; the same occurrence brings opposite outcomes for the two parties.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Al-sābiqūn are those foremost in good deeds in every nation — the earliest and most sincere of each community; the surah says they will be many from earlier peoples and 'qalīlun min al-ākhirīn', fewer from the later ones, though some commentators note this contrasts with other reports suggesting parity for this ummah.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- The same Event produces opposite outcomes — it is one occurrence read two ways by two kinds of people.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- There is no negotiation about whether it happens; the only question is which group you belong to.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Being 'foremost' is about a quality of striving, not merely chronological priority.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
If mankind were sorted into three groups today by your current state, which would you land in?
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Question 1 of 2
In āyah 3, what dual effect does khāfiḍatun rāfiʿah name?
Question 2 of 2
Who are al-sābiqūn as described in this passage?
The foremost: brought near in gardens of bliss
Al-muqarrabūn recline on jewelled couches, served by youths who never age, with drinks that cause no headache or intoxication, fruit and meat of their choosing, and companions with beautiful eyes. Their speech contains no idle talk or sin — only 'peace, peace'.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
From the tafsīr
Kaʾsin min maʿīn — a cup from a flowing spring of wine unlike this world's — la yuṣaddaʿūna ʿanhā wa-lā yunzifūn: it gives neither headache nor loss of reason, removing the two harms of worldly wine.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
'Lā laghwan fīhā wa-lā taʾthīmā' — their gathering has no vain speech and no sin in it, unlike gatherings of drink in this life; salām is their mutual greeting and description of their state.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- Paradise corrects, not just intensifies, worldly pleasures — the flaw of intoxication is removed while the pleasure remains.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
- Speech in Paradise is purified along with everything else; even leisure there is free of sin.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
- Nearness (al-qurb) is the description given to the highest rank, above mere reward.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
What worldly pleasure do you chase that comes bundled with a harm you accept as the price?
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Question 1 of 2
How is the talk among al-muqarrabūn described?
Question 2 of 2
What harms of intoxication does āyah 19 negate?
The right and the left: shade and thorns
The companions of the right enjoy thornless lote trees, stacked banana trees, extended shade, flowing water, and abundant fruit — a reward for a people who, though not the very foremost, lived rightly. The companions of the left face scorching wind, boiling water, and the shade of black smoke, having lived immersed in luxury and persisted in the great sin, denying the Resurrection; they will eat from the bitter tree of Zaqqūm and drink like thirst-maddened camels.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
وَأَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْيَمِينِ مَآ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْيَمِينِ
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The companions of the right - what are the companions of the right?
فِى سِدْرٍ مَّخْضُودٍ
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[They will be] among lote trees with thorns removed.
وَأَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلشِّمَالِ مَآ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلشِّمَالِ
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And the companions of the left - what are the companions of the left?
فِى سَمُومٍ وَحَمِيمٍ
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[They will be] in scorching fire and scalding water
From the tafsīr
'Sidrin makhḍūd' — lote trees stripped of their thorns, made pleasant instead of harmful; this contrasts deliberately with the thorny sidr of this world, showing a defect of creation removed in the Hereafter.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
The companions of the left are described by their worldly pattern — 'they persisted in the great sin' (al-ḥinth al-ʿaẓīm), understood by many commentators as shirk, and denial of the Ba'th — before their punishment is described; the sin explains the sentence.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī
Key takeaways
- The companions of the right are rewarded generously though they are a different, larger rank than the foremost — Paradise has more than one tier of honour.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
- Descriptions of punishment are consistently tied to described sins, not arbitrary — denial and persistence in wrongdoing are named as the cause.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
- Even the imagery of comfort (thornless trees, extended shade) directly answers a specific worldly hardship, showing deliberate, corrective design rather than generic bliss.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
Which small, 'thorny' pattern of sin do you keep excusing as harmless?
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Question 1 of 2
What quality of the sidr trees does makhḍūd indicate?
Question 2 of 2
What is named as the cause of the left companions' punishment?
The argument from creation: could He not do it again?
Allah turns to four everyday miracles humans overlook — their own creation from a drop, the seed they plant, the water they drink, and the fire they kindle — asking in each case whether it is they or Allah who truly causes it. The logic is identical each time: you did not create the ability, only used what was given, so the same Power that gives these ordinary things can certainly re-create you.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
أَفَرَءَيْتُم مَّا تُمْنُونَ
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Have you seen that which you emit?
ءَأَنتُمْ تَخْلُقُونَهُۥٓ أَمْ نَحْنُ ٱلْخَـٰلِقُونَ
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Is it you who creates it, or are We the Creator?
أَفَرَءَيْتُم مَّا تَحْرُثُونَ
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And have you seen that [seed] which you sow?
أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱلْمَآءَ ٱلَّذِى تَشْرَبُونَ
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And have you seen the water that you drink?
أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱلنَّارَ ٱلَّتِى تُورُونَ
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And have you seen the fire that you ignite?
From the tafsīr
'A-fa-raʾaytum mā tumnūn, a-antum takhluqūnahu am naḥnu al-khāliqūn' — you only place the seed; you have no power over whether it becomes a living being. The same pattern repeats for seed-sowing, water, and fire, each ending 'or are We the creators/senders/producers?'
Cited toIbn Kathīr
The fire example (tree used for kindling, al-shajarah al-khaḍrāʾ) is especially pointed: green, moist wood produces fire though fire and moisture are opposites, showing Allah's power to bring forth an effect from an unlikely cause — as He brings life from what seems lifeless.
Cited toAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān
Key takeaways
- The Qur'an argues for the resurrection from what people already witness daily, not from abstract philosophy.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
- Human power is real but limited to using a process, never to creating the underlying law that makes it work.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
- Each rhetorical question ends the same way, training the listener to recognise the pattern rather than treat each miracle as separate.
Drawn fromAl-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
Name one ordinary process in your day that you unconsciously treat as 'just how things work' rather than as Allah's continuous act.
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Question 1 of 2
What rhetorical device repeats across this passage?
Question 2 of 2
What is notable about producing fire from a green tree, per āyah 71–72?
The oath by the stars, and the three groups at death
A tremendous oath by the positions of the stars affirms this is a noble Qur'an in a protected record, touched only by the purified. The surah then closes exactly as it opened — with the three groups — but now at the moment of death itself: ease and fragrance for the near ones, peace for the companions of the right, and boiling water, fire, and torment for the deniers among the left. It ends by commanding the Prophet ﷺ to glorify the name of his Lord, the Mighty.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī; Ibn Kathīr
۞ فَلَآ أُقْسِمُ بِمَوَٰقِعِ ٱلنُّجُومِ
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Then I swear by the setting of the stars,
إِنَّهُۥ لَقُرْءَانٌ كَرِيمٌ
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Indeed, it is a noble Qur’ān.
لَّا يَمَسُّهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱلْمُطَهَّرُونَ
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None touch it except the purified [i.e., the angels].
فَأَمَّآ إِن كَانَ مِنَ ٱلْمُقَرَّبِينَ
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And if he [i.e., the deceased] was of those brought near [to Allāh],
فَرَوْحٌ وَرَيْحَانٌ وَجَنَّتُ نَعِيمٍ
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Then [for him is] rest and bounty and a garden of pleasure.
From the tafsīr
'Fa-lā uqsimu bi-mawāqiʿ al-nujūm, wa-innahu la-qasamun law taʿlamūna ʿaẓīm' — an oath emphasised as tremendous precisely because the thing sworn about, the Qur'an's protected transmission, is tremendous; 'lā yamassuhu illā al-muṭahharūn' refers primarily to the angels who convey it, and is used by scholars also regarding physical purity in touching the muṣḥaf.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
The closing scene of the three groups at death mirrors the opening exactly, so the surah's final image is not an abstract future Day but each individual's own approaching moment — 'fa-ammā in kāna min al-muqarrabīn... fa-rawḥun wa-rayḥānun wa-jannatu naʿīm.'
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī
Key takeaways
- The Qur'an's protection and purity are affirmed with the strongest form of oath the Arabic language offers.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī; Ibn Kathīr
- The three-group sorting is not only eschatological — it is already true of you at the moment you die, which could be any moment.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī; Ibn Kathīr
- The surah's final command, 'glorify the name of your Lord, the Mighty', turns the entire preceding argument into an act of worship, not just information.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
If you died in the next hour, which of the three closing descriptions would apply to your state right now?
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Question 1 of 2
Why does al-Ṭabarī call the closing scene a mirror of the opening?
Question 2 of 2
Why does the surah call its oath by the stars' positions great?
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Roots from this surah
Learn the three-letter root and you unlock every word built from it — across the whole Qur'an, not just this surah.
و ق ع
āyāt 1, 2, 75to fall, occur, befall — the sense of something landing decisively
- وَاقِعَةthe Event (that which occurs)
- وَقَعَit occurred, fell
- مَوَاقِعpositions, places of falling
س ب ق
āyāt 10to go ahead, precede, be foremost
- سَابِقone who goes ahead, foremost
- سَبَقَhe preceded
- سِبَاقa race
ق ر ب
āyāt 11, 88to be near, bring close
- مُقَرَّبone brought near
- قُرْبnearness
- قَرَّبَhe brought near
ص ح ب
āyāt 8, 27, 41to accompany, keep company with
- أَصْحَابcompanions
- صَاحِبa companion
- صُحْبَةcompanionship
ي م ن
āyāt 8, 27, 38, 90, 91blessing, the right side (associated with good fortune)
- يَمِينright hand / oath
- مَيْمَنَةthe right side
- مُبَارَك(related sense) blessed
خ ل ق
āyāt 59to create, bring into being from nothing pre-existing
- خَلَقَHe created
- خَالِقCreator
- خَلْقcreation
ط ه ر
āyāt 79to be pure, clean, free of impurity
- مُطَهَّرُونthe purified ones
- طَهَارَةpurity
- طَهَّرَhe purified
س ب ح
āyāt 74, 96to glorify, exalt, declare free of imperfection
- سَبَّحَhe glorified
- سُبْحَانglory be to
- تَسْبِيحglorification
Carry this with you
- The Hour is not a possibility to weigh; it is a certainty already sorting you into one of three groups.
- The same Event that disgraces one person honours another — the outcome is decided by what you carried into it, not by the Event itself.
- Nearness to Allah (al-qurb) is described as a rank higher than mere reward — worth striving for beyond simply 'passing'.
- Paradise's pleasures are described as corrected, not merely intensified — sin and harm removed even from what looks like this world's comforts.
- Ordinary daily processes — conception, farming, drinking water, lighting a fire — are offered as everyday proof of a Creator who can equally resurrect.
- The Qur'an's honour and protection are affirmed by one of the Qur'an's strongest oaths, describing a 'protected record' touched only by the purified.
- Your own moment of death repeats the same three-way sorting described for the Last Day — it is not a distant scenario but a near, personal one.
- Reports that promise specific worldly benefits like protection from poverty for reciting this surah nightly are weak and should not be treated as prophetic guarantees; the surah's real weight is in its call to reflect and to glorify Allah's name.
Where this surah connects
Cross-surah threads
Parts of the Qurʾān explain other parts. Each thread below opens the same subject as it is argued across every other surah you have studied, in revelation order.
Sources behind Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah
Every line of context, tafsīr and takeaway on this page traces back to one of these references. Ḥadīth numbers open on sunnah.com and āyah references open on quran.com, so you can check the claim rather than take it on trust. The Arabic text itself is fetched live from a verified public corpus.
Ḥadīth2
Tafsīr21
- Al-Qurṭubī
- Al-Qurṭubī on 56:13–14
- Al-Qurṭubī on 56:45–47
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
- al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 56:77
- Al-Saʿdī on 56:71–72
- Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān
- Al-Ṭabarī
- Al-Ṭabarī on 56:25–26
- Al-Ṭabarī on 56:88–94
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- Ibn Kathīr
- Ibn Kathīr on 56:19
- Ibn Kathīr on 56:28
- Ibn Kathīr on 56:3
- Ibn Kathīr on 56:58–72
- Ibn Kathīr on 56:75–79
- Ibn Kathīr on 56:75–80
- Ibn Kathīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah — the 'recite it nightly against poverty' report is graded weak by muḥaddithūn and is not a reliable basis for practice.
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Al-Wāqiʿah · When the Event occurs: three groups, no denial
What does 'khāfiḍatun rāfiʿah' describe about the Event?
Arabic (Uthmānī script) and the Ṣaḥīḥ International translation are fetched live from the Quran.com API (v4), sourced from the King Fahd Complex muṣḥaf — api.quran.com API docs · Translation: Ṣaḥīḥ International · Integrity & testing protocol