al-Nāziʿāt 79:34-36

Fa-idhā jāʾati'l-ṭāmmatu'l-kubrā · Yawma yatadhakkaru'l-insānu mā saʿā · Wa burrizati'l-jaḥīmu li-man yarā "When the great overwhelming comes — on that day man remembers what he strove for; and the Blaze is brought into view for whoever sees."

Root: ط-م-م. طَمَّ ٱلْمَاءُ — the water overflowed, covered everything, filled it. طَمَّ ٱلْبِئْرَ — he filled the well, closed it to the brim with earth.

The idea beneath the root: to fill up enough to cover a thing over, to overflow and blanket.

And in Arabic طَامَّة is used idiomatically in the sense of "a calamity that cannot be overcome".

The word was already recorded in the table of the names of the Hour in the section on al-Qāriʿa and the aspect it brings forward was written there as: comprehensiveness. That table is not repeated here; it is relied on.

And the grammatical feature recorded there holds here too: nearly all the names of the Hour are on the active participle pattern and are feminine. So is al-Ṭāmma.

There are three words of this pattern in this sūra: al-rājifa (6), al-rādifa (7), al-ṭāmma (34).

And here there is a striking repetition.

The same adjective, with two different nouns.

And what the two verses set up is this: to Pharaoh the greatest sign was shown and he denied it; now the greatest calamity is coming.

I record this as my own reading. The repetition of the word is, however, a datum that can be verified.

And this must be added: al-kubrā is used in other places in the Qurʾān as well (al-Najm 53/18; Ṭāhā 20/23). That is, the word's occurring twice in this sūra is not by itself proof of intent.

تَذَكَّرَ — Root: ذ-ك-ر. To mention, to remember. The تَفَعُّل form: to try to remember, to call to mind.

And the choice of the verb is worth recording.

The verse does not say "it is shown to him", does not say "he sees". It says "he remembers".

And to remember requires having forgotten.

That is, what the verse says is this: the human being had forgotten what he did; on that day he remembers.

This differs from the other scenes treated in this commentary and is worth comparing:

Three sūras, three different verbs in the same scene.

And al-Nāziʿāt's is the most inward: the record is not outside but in the person himself. No ledger is opened; he remembers.

I record this as an observation; the verbs of the three verses are in the text.

مَا سَعَىٰ — "what he strove for".

As recorded above, this root was used of Pharaoh in the twenty-second verse: "he turned his back, hurrying."

And now the same root is used of everyone.

This is part of what the sūra has been doing from the beginning: the story of one person turns into an attribute. The same will happen with the word ṭaghā (79/17 → 79/37).

The word's sense of "running" gives a flavour here. The verse does not say "what he did"; it says "what he ran for". That is, what is remembered is the thing for whose sake one ran — the thing effort was spent on, the thing pursued.

And the comparison with al-Nabaʾ 78/40 is worth recording:

The two neighbouring sūras use two different expressions in the same structure: "mā + verb" — and both make the person's own act the object.

This parallel is a datum that can be verified.

بَرَّزَ — Root: ب-ر-ز. To come out, to become apparent, to pass from the hidden to the visible.

• بَارِز — that which is out in the open, visible. "On that day you will see the earth laid bare" (al-Kahf 18/47 — bārizatan).
• بَرَاز — open ground, a desolate plain.
• بُرُوز — coming out, appearing.

The verb is passive and of the tafʿīl form: burrizat — "it was brought into view", "it was brought before them". That is, it does not appear of itself; it is shown.

ٱلْجَحِيم — Root: ج-ح-م. The fierce burning of fire, its blazing up. Jaḥīm is one of the names the Qurʾān uses for the Fire — and the list in the section on al-Qāriʿa is not repeated here.

And the word will occur twice in this sūra: 79/36 and 79/39.

And this qualification is strange.

When the Blaze is brought into view, will not everyone see it? Why is a qualification set?

The exegetes' explanations:

And the Qurʾān describes the same scene in another sūra with a different qualification:

"And the Blaze was brought into view for those who had gone astray." (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/91 — burrizati'l-jaḥīmu li'l-ghāwīn)

The two verses use the same verb but set a different limitation: one "for those who had gone astray", the other "for whoever sees".

This is a difference worth recording, and the two verses stand as though they complete one another: the Blaze is brought into view for those who have gone astray, and it becomes visible for whoever sees.

A reading and its note. In the twenty-sixth verse the sūra had said "a lesson for whoever feels awe"; in the forty-fifth it will say "a warner to whoever feels awe". Here too there is a qualification: "for whoever sees."

Three times the sūra says that something reaches not everyone but the one who has a particular state. I record this as an observation; the places of the three qualifications in the text can be counted.