Sūrah Al-Qiyāmah The Resurrection: Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī The Source Commentary

Surah Overview

DetailInformationClassificationSignificance

SurahالقيامةMakkī 40 versesResurrection certainty, dying faces, revelation reception instruction

Key DisagreementWhy did the Prophet move his lips during revelation (75:16)?Revelation receptionAl-Ṭabarī: from fear of forgetting through chains from Ibn ʿAbbās confirming the Prophet moved his lips to memorize as revelation came; Allah then promised to preserve it

Competing OpinionsWhat are the "luminous faces" and "dust-covered faces" (75:22–25)?Day of Judgment facesAl-Ṭabarī: the believers' and disbelievers' faces respectively their inner states manifested outwardly on the Day of Judgment; through chains from Ibn ʿAbbās

MethodologyConnecting the revelation-reception instruction to the occasion through chains from Ibn ʿAbbāsAsbāb al-nuzūl methodAl-Ṭabarī uses Ibn ʿAbbās's eyewitness account of the Prophet's revelation experience to establish the occasion of 75:16–19

Key Themes from Al-Ṭabarī

The revelation reception instruction (75:16–19) "Do not move with it your tongue to hasten it. Indeed, upon Us is its collection and its recitation. So when We have recited it, then follow its recitation. Then upon Us is its clarification" is analyzed by al-Ṭabarī through the famous chain from Ibn ʿAbbās: the Prophet would move his lips during revelation to memorize it quickly, fearing he would forget. This verse was revealed instructing him to wait Allah guarantees the preservation, collection, and clarification of revelation. The chain connects this directly to the occasion.

The dying faces (75:22–25) are analyzed through chains from Ibn ʿAbbās on the specific experience of the moment of death: the faces of believers will be "nāḍirah" (luminous, radiant) looking at their Lord; the faces of disbelievers will be "bāsirah" (knowing their fate, seeing what awaits them) with certainty that "a back-breaking calamity will befall them." Al-Ṭabarī uses chains to establish these as physical states at the moment of death, not just on the Day of Judgment.

لَا تُحَرِّكْ بِهِ لِسَانَكَ لِتَعْجَلَ بِهِ إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا جَمْعَهُ وَقُرْآنَهُ Lā tuḥarrik bihi lisānaka li-taʿjala bihi inna ʿalaynā jamʿahu wa-qurʾānahu "Do not move with it your tongue to hasten it indeed, upon Us is its collection and its recitation." (75:16–17) Al-Ṭabarī presents the chain from Ibn ʿAbbās on the Prophet's lip movement during revelation the verse is a divine instruction to trust Allah's guarantee of preservation.

وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَّاضِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ Wujūhun yawmaʾidhin nāḍiratun ilā rabbihā nāẓirah "Faces that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord." (75:22–23) Al-Ṭabarī treats this as a proof for the believers' vision of Allah in Paradise one of the key verses he uses through chains from Ibn ʿAbbās to establish the ru'yat Allah doctrine.

Revelation preservation: Al-Ṭabarī's chain-based analysis of 75:16–19 establishes divine preservation of revelation as a Quranic promise, not merely a theological claim.
Vision of Allah: 75:22–23 is treated as primary evidence for the believers seeing Allah in Paradise al-Ṭabarī uses chains from Ibn ʿAbbās to confirm this literal interpretation.
Dying face states: The physical states of faces at death luminous or knowing impending doom are analyzed as literal conditions, not metaphors.
Human excuse rejection: 75:14–15's "man will be a witness against himself" is analyzed through chains as the ultimate personal accountability no excuses accepted.
Death process: 75:26–30's description of the soul reaching the throat, the gathering of legs the final moments is traced through chains as a physical description of dying.

Surah Overview

Key Themes from Al-Ṭabarī

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