Note 1
I.e., the Day of Resurrection and Judgment, on which man will become fully aware of the quality of his past life and, freed from all self-deception, will see himself as he really was, with the innermost meaning of all his past doings - and thus of his destiny in the hereafter - blindingly revealed. (Cf. 37:19, the last sentence of 39:68, and 50:21.)

Note 2
Implying that this sudden perception of the ultimate reality will be beyond anything that man can anticipate or imagine: hence, no answer is given to the above rhetorical question.

Note 3
I.e., the Last Hour (see note 1 on 101:1). For particulars of the pre-Islamic tribes of 'Ad and Thamud, see 7:65 and the corresponding notes.

Note 4
Cf. 7:78.

Note 5
I.e., Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of Lot's people (see 11:69).

Note 6
I.e., metonymically (in the consensus of all classical commentators), "your ancestors".

Note 7
Alluding to the punishment of evildoers and the saving grace bestowed upon the righteous.

Note 8
I.e., the end of the world as we know it, followed by resurrection and the Last Judgment.

Note 9
The term as-sama' may denote here "the sky" or "skies", i.e., the visible firmament, or "heaven" in its allegorical sense, or the aggregate of cosmic systems comprised in the concept of "the universe" (cf. surah 2, note 20). Its being "rent asunder" is perhaps a metaphor for a total breakdown of the cosmic order.

Note 10
Or: "at its sides".

Note 11
Since God is infinite in space as well as in time. it is obvious that His "throne" (arsh) has a purely metaphorical connotation, circumscribing His absolute, unfathomable sway over all that exists or possibly could exist (cf. note 43 on 7:54). Hence, too, the "bearing aloft" of the throne of His almightiness cannot be anything but a metaphor - namely, an allusion to the full maniffestation of that almightiness on the Day of Judgment. The Qur'an is silent as to who or what the "eight" are on whom this manifestation rests. Some of the earliest commentators assume that they are eight angels; others, that they are eight ranks of angels; while still others frankly admit that it is impossible to say whether "eight" or "eight thousand" are meant (Al-Hasan al-Basri, as quoted by Zamakhshari ). Possibly, we have here an allusion to eight (unspecified) attributes of God or aspects of His creation; but, as the Qur'an states elsewhere, "none save God knows its final meaning" (see 3:7 and the corresponding note 8).

Note 12
I.e., ",-hose record shows that he was righteous in his life on earth: cf. 17:71, as well as the symbolic expression "those on the right hand" in 74:39. The linguistic origin of the .symbolism of "right" and "left" as "righteous" and "unrighteous" is explained in note 3 on 56:8.

Note 13
Implying that he had always been conscious of resurrection and judgment, and had tried to behave accordingly.

Note 14
Thus signifying that he had been unrighteous in his earthly life, in contrast with those "whose record will be placed in their right hand" (see verse 19 and note 12 above).

Note 15
The term sultan, which primarily signifies "power" or "authority", has here - as in many other places in the Qur'an - evidently the meaning of "argument", synonymous with hujjah (Ibn Abbas, Ikrimah, Mujahid, Ad-Dahhak, all of them quoted by Tabari): in this case, an argument or arguments against the idea of life after death and, hence, of divine judgment.

Note 16
For an explanation of the allegory of "shackles", see note 13 on 13:5, note 44 on the last but one sentence of 34:33, and notes 6 and 7 on 36:8.

Note 17
See 14:49 - "on that Day thou wilt see all who were lost in sin (al-mujrimin) linked together in fetters" - and the corresponding note 64, which explains my above interpolation of the phrase, "of other sinners like him".

Note 18
I.e., a chain exceedingly long - the number "seventy" being used here metonymically, as often done in classical Arabic, in the sense of "very many" (Zamakhshari ); hence "of a measure the length whereof is known only to God" (Tabari; also Al-Hasan, as quoted by Razi).

Note 19
Lit., "did not urge", i.e., himself.

Note 20
The noun ghislin, which appears in the Qur'an only in this one instance, has been variously - and very contradictorily - explained by the early commentators. Ibn Abbas, when asked about it, frankly answered, "I do not know what ghislin denotes" (Razi). The term "filth" used by me contains an allusion to the "devouring" of all that is abominable in the spiritual sense: cf. its characterization in the next verse as "[that] which none but the sinners eat" - i.e. (metaphorically) in this world, and, consequently, in the hereafter as well.

Note 21
The phrase "all that you can see" comprises all the observable phenomena of nature - including man himself and the organic conditions of his own existence - as well as the configuration of human society and the perceptible rules of its growth and decay in the historical sense; whereas "that which you cannot see" relates to the intangible spiritual verities accessible to man's intuition and instinct, including the voice of his own conscience: all of which "bears witness", as it were, to the fact that the light which the divine writ (spoken of in the sequence) casts on innermost realities and interrelations of all that exists objectively - or, as the case may be, manifests itself subjectively in man's own psyche - must be an outcome of genuine revelation, inasmuch as it goes far beyond anything that unaided human intellect could ever achieve.

Note 22
I.e., deprived him of all ability to act - the "right hand" symbolizing power.

Note 23
Sc., "who believe in [the existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human perception: cf. 2:2.