Yāsīn 36:51-52

Wa nufikha fi'ṣ-ṣūri fa-idhā hum mina'l-ajdāthi ilā rabbihim yansilūn · Qālū yā waylanā man baʿathanā min marqadinā? Hādhā mā waʿada'r-Raḥmānu wa ṣadaqa'l-mursalūn

"The trumpet is blown; and all at once there they are, streaming out of the graves towards their Lord. They say: 'Woe to us! Who has raised us from where we lay? — This is what the Merciful promised; the messengers told the truth.'"

This word was treated in al-Ḥāqqa at 69/13, and two readings were tabulated there. The finding there was this: the first reading (horn/trumpet) is the reading of the majority and agrees better with the structure of the verb — nufikha fī'ṣ-ṣūr, "it was blown into the ṣūr"; for blowing into a form a different word order would be expected. I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.

And as was recorded there, the Qurʾān speaks of two blowings (al-Zumar 39/68). In Yāsīn how many blowings there are is not said, and this must be recorded: the verse recounts a single blowing but gives no number. It is widely said in the classical commentaries that this is the second blowing; I transmit that, I do not add it to the wording of the verse.

Jadath — a grave, a tomb; its plural is ajdāth. The root was analysed in al-Qamar at 54/7, and the word's sense of "the pit itself, the dug place" was recorded there. It has occurred in al-Maʿārij at 70/43 too.

And in al-Qamar a comparison table of three verses was given — Yāsīn 36/51 was already named there. I do not repeat the table here; I rely on that treatment. The only thing that needs recording is that all three verses use the same noun and three different verbs: yansilūn (Yāsīn), yakhrujūn (al-Qamar), yakhrujūna sirāʿan (al-Maʿārij).

The concrete sense of the root: to separate from something and come out, to be shed.

• نَسَلَ الشَّعْرُ / الرِّيشُ — the hair fell out, the feathers were shed (separating from the body).
• نَسَل — offspring, descent: what separates and comes out from someone.
• نَسَلَ فِى المَشْيِ — he walked fast and without pause.

The lexicographers tie these branches to the same core: to separate from an origin and come out one after another.

The verb occurs in the same form in one other place in the Qurʾān: wa hum min kulli ḥadabin yansilūn (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/96).

And the choice of word must be recorded: the verse does not say "they rise" or "they come to life". It says "they stream out" — fast, one after another, without pause.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the two branches of the root: the same word recounts both coming out by birth (nasl) and coming out of the grave. The lexicographers record this shared ground; I make no point of it, I note that the two branches of the root come together in the same word. And the word's place within the sūra supports this: in the seventy-seventh verse man's coming out of a drop will be recounted. Two comings-out, standing at the two ends of the same sūra.

Yā waylanā — the same structure as yā ḥasratan in the thirtieth verse: calling to an addressee that is not there (nidāʾ majāzī). Wayl — perdition, woe.

There are two instances of nidāʾ majāzī in the sūra (30 and 52), and both call upon a word of regret. It is a verifiable repetition. And the mouths are different: the one in the thirtieth verse belongs to the narration, the one in the fifty-second to those raised.

The root: to sleep. Raqada — he slept; ruqūd — the state of sleep. The root has occurred in al-Dhāriyāt.

The pattern: marqad — a noun of place. "The place where one sleeps, a bed."

And the choice of word is the most striking side of the verse: those raised do not call the grave "a grave". They say "where we lay".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is whose mouth the word is in: this word belongs not to the narrator but to those raised. The verse gives no definition of the state of the barzakh; it reports the perception of the one speaking. For one who wakes there is no elapsed time — sleep is named as sleep only on waking.

And a note — the same line was kept in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) at 40/46: it is transmitted that in the classical commentaries inferences about the state of the barzakh have been drawn from this verse. I content myself with transmitting that discussion and issue no ruling.

The exegetes differ over who speaks the sentence:

Both are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

One datum internal to the text can be recorded: there is no new qālū in the sentence — it is joined by faṣl. This appears to support the first view. It is an observation, not a preference.

And now comes the most striking internal link of the sūra.

In the third verse the sūra had said this to the Prophet: innaka lamina'l-mursalīn — "you are one of the messengers." This was a sentence strengthened with an oath and built with three devices of emphasis — that is, an addressee who rejects was presupposed.

In the fifty-second verse the same word returns, and this time it is spoken by those who denied it: wa ṣadaqa'l-mursalūn — "the messengers told the truth."

This is a correspondence that can be verified from the text.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word the two sentences share: the claim put forward with emphasis at the beginning of the sūra is spoken in the middle of the sūra by the other side and with no emphasis at all. And the falling away of the devices of emphasis is a datum of word order: in the third verse there were inna and the lām because there was resistance opposite; in the fifty-second there is none of them, because no resistance is left.

The root ر-س-ل occurs in seven places in the sūra (3, 13, 14, 16, 20, 30, 52) and will be tabulated separately in the closing section.