فَإِنَّمَا هِىَ زَجْرَةٌ وَٰحِدَةٌ · فَإِذَا هُم بِٱلسَّاهِرَةِ
Fa-innamā hiya zajratun wāḥida · Fa-idhā hum bi'l-sāhira "It is but a single cry. And at once they are upon the wakeful plain."
An objection of three verses is answered with two verses. And the answer is not an argument; it is a description.
This is the same method as was recorded in the section on al-Qāriʿa: instead of continuing the dispute, the text shows the scene.
The particle فَ binds the answer to what precedes: "[is that what they say?] Then [let them know that] it is but…"
إِنَّمَا — a particle of restriction: "only, nothing but." That is, the matter is not being magnified but made small.
They had presented the resurrection as an impossible undertaking. The answer reduces the undertaking to a single sound.
And the concrete use of the root comes from herding: زَجَرَ ٱلرَّاعِى ٱلْإِبِلَ — the herdsman drove the camels with his voice. The herdsman does not touch the animal; he shouts, and the animal rises and moves.
- زَاجِر — those who drive, who drive off. In the Qurʾān: "By those who drive with a driving" (al-Ṣāffāt 37/2 — fa'l-zājirāti zajrā). This is in the same pattern as al-Nāziʿāt's series of oaths.
- اِزْدَجَرَ — he desisted, he refrained; and he was rebuked. "They denied and said 'a madman'; and he was rebuked and driven off" (al-Qamar 54/9 — wa'zdujira).
- مُزْدَجَر — a deterrent. "In them are tidings that deter" (al-Qamar 54/4).
In al-Nabaʾ 78/18 the same event was described with نَفْخ (a blast) — a sound produced with an instrument. Here زَجْرَة is used — the herdsman's shout to the flock.
| al-Nabaʾ 78/18 | al-Nāziʿāt 79/13 | |
|---|---|---|
| Word | نَفْخ — a blast | زَجْرَة — a cry |
| Source of the sound | An instrument (the trumpet) | An agent who cries out |
| Picture | The sound of a horn | The herdsman raising the flock |
| Result | "You come in throngs" | "And at once they are on the plain" |
The picture in the second sūra is harder. Zajr is not a courteous call; it is a voice that lifts the flock from its place and admits of no objection.
And the result in al-Nabaʾ and the result here give the same idea: the crowd rises not by its own decision but because it is made to rise.
I record this as an observation. The difference between the two words and the neighbouring position of the two sūras are in the text.
That the number is specified is worth recording. The sentence does not content itself with "a cry"; it says "a single" one.
"It is but a single shout; and at once they are looking on." (al-Ṣāffāt 37/19)
"They await nothing but a single shout." (Yāsīn 36/49)
"Our command is but a single act, like the twinkling of an eye." (al-Qamar 54/50)
The function of the emphasis: their objection was about the difficulty of the undertaking (how are decayed bones to be gathered?). The answer does not dispute the difficulty of the undertaking; it states its duration.
And this is the Qurʾān's general posture on the resurrection. Power is not debated; the scale is changed.
Root: س-ه-ر. To stay sleepless, to remain awake at night. سَهَر — sleeplessness. سَاهِر — one who stays awake.
| View | Explanation | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| Flat, bare ground (the most widespread) | In Arabic al-sāhira means level ground without trees and without unevenness. It takes its name from no one sleeping there, or from its being fit for keeping watch | A usage recorded by the lexicographers |
| The place where there is no sleeping | Because on the Day of Resurrection no one will sleep | The direct sense of the root |
| The face of the earth | Not the inside of the grave but its outside | The scene describes the coming out of the grave |
| A particular place-name | In some reports a specific location | Weak; its ground is uncertain |
The first three views do not exclude one another and all arrive at the same place: the open ground that is come out onto from within the grave.
In al-Nabaʾ 78/9 sleep was counted as a favour: وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَكُمْ سُبَاتًا — "We made your sleep a cutting-off." And what was recorded there was this: the root of subāt is to cut; sleep is the cutting-off of activity. It was also recorded that sleep is spoken of in the Qurʾān as a daily death (al-Zumar 39/42; al-Anʿām 6/60).
In al-Nāziʿāt 79/14 the ground of the scene of resurrection is named ٱلسَّاهِرَة — "the sleepless one".
| al-Nabaʾ 78/9 | al-Nāziʿāt 79/14 | |
|---|---|---|
| Word | سُبَاتًا — a cutting-off (sleep) | ٱلسَّاهِرَة — the sleepless one |
| Sense of the root | To cut, to halt | To stay awake |
| Where | In this world | On the plain of resurrection |
| What | A favour given | A place arrived at |
And this, joined with the sleep–death connection, says one thing more. If sleep is a daily cutting-off, and if after every cutting-off a waking comes, then the name of the last waking is al-sāhira — the place where the cutting-off ends.
I record this as my own reading. The neighbouring position of the two sūras and the root senses of the two words are in the text; the connection is mine.
The function of this particle is this: it announces the sudden appearance of something unexpected. In English it answers to "and lo", "all at once", "and there they are".
"He cast down his staff; and at once it was a manifest serpent." (al-Aʿrāf 7/107; al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/32)
"…and at once they are standing, looking on." (al-Zumar 39/68)
They were imagining a long and difficult operation: the gathering of bones, the clothing of them with flesh, the giving of life. The sūra finishes it in two steps: a sound, and at once.
I record this as my own reading; but the functions of the two particles (innamā wāḥida and the idhā of suddenness) are on record in grammar.