al-Mursalāt 77:25-26 — The third of the three proofs: the earth

A lam najʿali'l-arḍa kifātā · Aḥyāʾan wa amwātā "Did We not make the earth a gatherer — of the living and of the dead?"

Root: ك-ف-ت. And this word occurs only here in the Qurʾān.

There is no scattering among the lexicographers over the sense of the root; its core is clear: to draw a thing to oneself and gather it, to bring together, to take in.

• كَفَتَ — he gathered, he collected, he drew to himself; he fitted a thing into a place.
• كِفَات — the act of gathering; and the place gathered into, the vessel gathered into.
• The lexicographers record that the word carries the sense of a vessel or container: a place into which things are put and gathered.

There are two explanations of the word's pattern:

Both readings come out in the same place.

Now look at the next verse: أَحْيَآءً وَأَمْوَٰتًا — both in the accusative.

This is a point of grammar that has been dwelt on, because the accusative requires a cause. The explanations given:

The first explanation is striking, because it is grammar itself that shows the word to be a verbal noun: the accusative of aḥyāʾan wa amwātā is evidence that kifāt carries verbal force. A noun does not take an object; a verbal noun does.

That is, the structure of the sentence says: the earth is not a "gatherer"; it is an "act of gathering". The property of the earth is not that it is an object but that it is an action continually performed.

I record this as a grammatical inference; among the explanations I impose no decisive preference.

And now the real force of the word.

The verse does not say "We made the earth the place where the dead are gathered". It says "of the living and of the dead".

One ground, two different gatherings:

The earth is a two-layered vessel. It carries those who live above it and holds those who die beneath it. And for both the same word is used: kifāt.

What this single word does is this: it makes the difference between living and being buried two states of the same act. A human being is something the earth gathers when he is born, and so too when he dies. The earth does not change; the state of what is gathered changes.

And from here arises the argument of the sūra. I shall open it in the next section.

In the section on al-Zalzala the things the earth carries were called أَثْقَال (burdens). What is to be taken from there:

Root: ث-ق-ل. Thiql — a load, a heavy thing carried. Its plural is athqāl. And the exegetes differ over the scope of this word: the dead / buried treasures / both / whatever is inside the earth. And it was recorded there: "The word's coming without restriction is what produces this variety."

Also treated there was al-Zalzala's verb: أَخْرَجَ — to bring out. "The soil gives back what was put into it."

Now let us set the three words side by side:

The two sūras tell the inverse of one another and together frame a complete circle.

In al-Mursalāt the earth gathers: the living above, the dead beneath. In al-Zalzala the earth brings out: it gives up what is inside it.

And there is a logical relation between them — this is exactly al-Mursalāt's argument: a vessel that gathers is expected to give back what it has gathered. A place that has taken a thing into itself has taken it in order to hold it; and what is held may one day be asked for.

I record this as my own reading. The wordings of the two verses were given above.

And the disagreement in al-Zalzala echoes here too. There what athqāl is was disputed (the dead, treasures, everything) and the word's coming without restriction was recorded. Al-Mursalāt, by contrast, draws the limit plainly: aḥyāʾan wa amwātā. That is, al-Mursalāt fills the gap al-Zalzala left: what the earth gathers is living beings.

I record this shared feature as an observation; I do not claim a deliberate reference between the two sūras.

One detail of the word kifāt is worth dwelling on: the word conveys a vessel, not an expanse.

An expanse is unlimited; a vessel is limited. Everything put into a vessel shares the vessel's volume.

The verse does not say this — but the word carries it. And it coincides with this concrete fact: the earth is a place where those who live upon it and those who lie beneath it share the same surface. The graveyards of cities, the old settlements beneath fields, how many generations one piece of ground carries one upon another — all of this is inside a single vessel.

I record this not as a piece of information the verse conveys but as an observation the word calls to mind.

The third of the three proof sections does a different work from the first two:

• The first proof (16-18): It happened in the past → it will happen again. A proof from time.
• The second proof (20-23): It was done once → it will be done again. A proof from power.
• The third proof (25-27): The earth gathers → it will give back what it gathers. A proof from the ground.

All three follow the same method: to move from something the addressee sees to something he does not see.

And the order of the three is meaningful too: it comes from far to near. First the history of others, then his own body, then the ground beneath his feet. The sūra arranges its proofs by bringing them closer to the addressee.

I record this as my own reading.