Meccan, consisting of 40 verses.

Nay! (the lā is extra in both instances) I swear by the Day of Resurrection.

And, nay, I swear by the (self-)reproaching soul, the one that reproaches itself, even if it should expend great effort in being virtuous (the response to the oath has been omitted, that is to say, la-tub‘athunna, ‘you shall indeed be resurrected!’, as indicated by [what follows]):

Does man, that is, [does] the disbeliever, suppose that We shall not assemble his bones?, for the raising [from the graves] and [for] the bringing back to life.

Yes, indeed!, We shall assemble them. We are able, in addition to assembling them, to reshape [even] his fingers, that is to say, to restore their bones just as they had been, despite their smallness: so how much more so [are We able to restore] the larger ones!

Nay, but man desires to deny (li-yafjura: the lām is extra, and the subjunctive mood is because of an implied [preceding] an, ‘that’) what lies ahead of him, namely, the Day of Resurrection, as is indicated by:

He asks, ‘When is the Day of Resurrection?’ — the question is meant in mockery and denial.

But when the eyes are dazzled (read bariqa or baraqa), startled and perplexed upon seeing some of those things which it used to deny;

and the moon is eclipsed, darkening, its light disappearing,

and the sun and the moon are brought together, so that both of them will rise from the west; or [it means when] the light of both of them disappears — and this will be on the Day of Resurrection —

on that day man will say, ‘Where is the escape?’

No indeed! — a deterrent against seeking to escape — There is no refuge, no shelter to seek protection in.

On that day the recourse will be to your Lord, the [final] recourse of all creatures, whereupon they will be reckoned with and requited.

On that day man will be informed of what he has sent ahead and left behind, [he will be informed] of the his first and last deeds.

Rather man has insight into his [own] soul, for his limbs will speak of his deeds (the hā’ [sc. the tā’ marbūta in basīratun] is for hyperbole), and so he must be requited,

though he should offer his excuses (ma‘ādhīr is the plural of ma‘dhira, but following a different pattern [from the usual ma‘dhira, ma‘ādhir]) that is to say, whatever excuse he offers will not be accepted from him.

God, exalted be He, says to His Prophet: Do not move your tongue with it, with the Qur’ān, before Gabriel is through with [reciting] it, to hasten it, fearing to lose it.

Assuredly it is for Us to bring it together, in your breast, and to recite it, your reciting of it, that is, its flowing off your tongue.

So, when We recite it, to you, by means of Gabriel’s recital, follow its recitation, listen to its recitation: thus the Prophet (s) would listen to it and then repeat it.

Then, it is for Us to explain it, by making you comprehend [it]: the connection between this verse and what preceded [it] is that those [verses before] imply turning away from God’s signs, whereas this one implies applying oneself to them by memorising them.

No indeed! (kallā is for commencement, with the sense of alā) Rather you love the transitory [life], this world (both verbs [here and below] may be read in the second or third person plural),

and forsake the Hereafter, thus neglecting to work towards [attaining bliss in] it.

Some faces on that day, that is, on the Day of Resurrection, will be radiant, fair and resplendent,

looking upon their Lord, in other words, they will see God, glorified and exalted be He, in the Hereafter.

And other faces on that day will be scowling, glowering, frowning terribly,

certain that a spine-crushing calamity will fall on them, a great catastrophe, one that ‘crushes the spine’ (fiqār).

No indeed! (kallā: in the sense of alā) When it, the soul, reaches up to the collar bones,

and it is said, [and] those around him [the dying one] say: ‘Where is the enchanter?’, to perform incantations on him and cure him,

and he suspects, [he] the one whose soul has reached this [stage], that it is the [time of] parting, the parting with this world,

and the shank is intertwined with the [other] shank, that is, one of his shanks [will be intertwined] with his other shank at the moment of death; or [it means] the distress of parting with this world is intertwined with the distress of the arrival of the Hereafter;

on that day to your Lord will be the driving [of the souls] (al-masāq means al-sawq; this indicates the operator of the [above] idhā, ‘when’, the meaning being: ‘when the soul reaches the throat, it will be driven towards the judgement of its Lord’).

For he, man, neither affirmed [the truth] nor prayed,

but he denied, the Qur’ān, and he turned away, from faith,

then went off to his family swaggering, strutting about in self-conceit.

[Woe be] nearer to you (there is a shift from the third [to the second] person address here; the term [awlā] is a noun of action, with the [following] lām being explicative, in other words, ‘what you are averse to is [now] near to you’) and nearer, that is because you are more deserving of it [woe] than anyone else,

then [may woe be] nearer to you and nearer! — [repeated] for emphasis.

Does man suppose that he is to be left aimless?, left to his own devices without being obligated to the [prescribed] laws: let him not suppose that!

Was he not — that is, [indeed] he was — a drop of emitted semen? (read yumnā or tumnā) deposited into the womb.

Then it, the drop of semen, became a clot; then He, God, created, from it man, and proportioned [him], making the parts of his body upright,

and made of it, of the drop of semen that became a blood-clot, then an embryo, a [small] mass of flesh, the two sexes, the two kinds, the male and the female, at times coming together and at times each being on their own.

Is not such, a Doer of [all] these things, able to revive the dead? — the Prophet (s) would say, ‘Yes, indeed!’