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Chapter 82

The Rendingal-Infiṭār ( الإنفطار )

19 verses • revealed at Meccan

»The surah that opens with a riveting description of The Rending open of the sky at the onset of the Day of Resurrection and assets that every human is being watched by angels and shall stand accountable before God in the Hereafter. It takes its name from “the renting” or “torn apart” (infiṭār) of the sky mentioned in verse 1. The surah deals with man’s ingratitude and his failure to concede that the Day of Judgement will come.«

The surah is also known as Bursting Apart, Cleft Asunder, The Cataclysm, The Cleaving Asunder, The Splitting, Torn Apart

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

Yusuf Ali: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

1
إِذَا السَّماءُ انفَطَرَت

Yusuf Ali

In subject-matter this Sūra is cognate to the last, though the best authorities consider it a good deal later in chronology in the early Meccan Period.
Its argument is subject to the threefold interpretation mentioned in second n. to 81:13, viz., as referring (1) to the final Day of Judgment, (2) to the Lesser Judgment, on an individual’s death, and (3) to the awakening of the Inner Light in the soul at any time, that being considered as Death in the Falsities of this life and a rebirth to the true spiritual Reality.
[82:1-19] How fixed is the order holding together this material universe above and below us? Yet it must give way before the vast Unfathomed Truth in which man will see his past and his future in true perspective. To God he owes his life and all its blessings: will he not see that the Future depends on Right and Justice? Righteousness must come to its own, and so must Discord and Rebellion. The Day must come when Discord must finally cease, and the Peace of God and His Command are all-in-all.
When1 the Sky is cleft asunder;2
  • Cf. the passage 81:1-14 and notes. For the three parallel interpretations, see the Introduction to this Sūra. There are four conditional clauses here, and the substantive clause is in verse 5. In S. 81, there were 12 conditional clauses, and the conclusion was similar, but not expressed in precisely the same terms. See 82:5 and belonging n. below. The literal interpretation would be that the physical world as we see it now will be destroyed before the final Day of Judgment, establishing the true spiritual Reality. If the four clauses are interpreted metaphorically (see notes from second note to 82:1 to 82:4), we have a reference to the Lesser Judgment, the individual dawn of the true Reality at Death. If we interpret by the Ṣūfi method, the spiritual crisis may occur to any soul at any moment when these metaphorical events occur.
  • Cf. 73:18, n. to 73:17. In literal meaning, the beautiful blue sky overhead, which we take for granted in sunshine and storm, will be shattered to pieces before the new Spiritual World is established. Metaphorically, the partition which seems at present to divide things divine from the phenomenal world has to be shattered before each soul knows the Reality about itself.