يَوْمَ يَقُومُ ٱلنَّاسُ لِرَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
The word is in the accusative and explains the yawmin ʿaẓīm of the preceding verse (an appositive substitute). "A mighty day — that is, the day when…"
Root: ق-و-م. This root was taken up in the section on al-Bayyina, and the line mustaqīm → iqāma → qayyima was set up there.
The root's original sense is to stand, to be upright. Its derivatives: qiyām (standing), qiyāma (the rising), maqām (a place where one stands), qawm (a people standing together), qayyūm (that which stands of itself and holds all things standing).
That the word qiyāma comes from this root settles the image of the verse: the name of that day is "the rising". And this verse displays plainly the picture inside the word.
The verb is in the imperfect: it conveys continuity. That is, not to stand up and then sit down; to remain standing — to wait.
| View | Sense |
|---|---|
| Purpose | They stand for His judgement, for the reckoning |
| Reverence and obedience | To stand in His presence is an expression of honouring — as one does not sit in the presence of a sovereign |
| Submission to His command | Qāma li-fulān — he held himself ready at someone's command |
The construct رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِين is the second verse of al-Fātiḥa and was taken up there. Why it should be chosen here is worth dwelling on.
The verse does not say "for God" or "for the best of judges". It says "for the Lord of all the worlds".
One. A sovereignty from which nobody is left out. ʿĀlamīn — all the worlds. The person who cheats in the measure is the owner of the measure in his own bazaar; on that day the owner of the measure is someone else, and His sovereignty is not partial.
Two. The sense of nurture in the word Rabb. As was recorded in the section on al-ʿAlaq, a rabb is "one who nurtures, who raises, who brings a thing to completion". So the station before which one stands is not merely a station that judges; it is a station that feeds and brings up.
This lies along the same line as the sixth verse of Sūrat al-Infiṭār: there too the reckoning was named together with the attribute al-karīm.
I record this as an observation about the wording. The repetition of the word is a datum of the text; the contrast is my reading.
As the description of that day the verse chooses not sitting but standing. And further on in the sūra, when the state of the abrār is described, exactly the opposite will be used:
"On couches they look." (83/23, 35) — عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ
So the sūra sets up two postures: those who stand waiting and those who sit and look. And the difference between the two carries the whole message of the sūra.
To stand is the state in which the reckoning has not been given — waiting, uncertainty, weariness. To sit is the work's being finished.