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Chapter 88

The Enveloperal-Ghāshiyah ( الغاشية )

26 verses • revealed at Meccan

»The surah that opens with the edifying question regarding human awareness of the coming of a sure cataclysmic event it calls The Enveloper. It takes its name from “the enveloper” (al-ghāshiyah) mentioned in verse 1. The surah serves to warn the disbelievers, encourage the Prophet Muḥammad and the believers, and absolve him of responsibility for the disbelievers.«

The surah is also known as The Overpowering, The Overwhelmer, The Overwhelming, The Overwhelming Event, The Pall, The Whelming

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

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

1
هَل أَتاكَ حَديثُ الغاشِيَةِ

Yusuf Ali

This is a late Sura of the early Meccan period, perhaps close in date to S. 52. Its subject matter is the contrast between the destinies of the Good and the Evil in the Hereafter,—on the Day when the true balance will be restored: the Signs of God even in this life should remind us of the Day of Account, for God is good and just, and His creation is for a just Purpose.
[88:1-26] Have you heard of that Tremendous Day when the Good from the Evil will be separated?
There will be Souls that Day will burn and grovel in the blazing Fire of Wrath! No Food can fill their Hunger; no Drink, alas, can slake their fierce Thirst!
There will be Souls that Day will shout with Joy to the glory of their Lord! Their past Endeavor will now be Achievement. Raised high on Thrones of Dignity they will be Guests at the sumptuous Feast of Bliss.
Let man but look at his dominion o’er the beasts of the field, or his glorious Canopy of stars, or the Eternal Hills that feed his streams, or the wide expanse of Mother Earth that nurtures him, and he will see the ordered Plan of God. To Him must he return and give account! Let him, then, learn his Lesson and live!
Has the story reached thee, of the overwhelming (Event)?1
  • Ghāshiya: the thing or event that overshadows or overwhelms, that covers over or makes people lose their senses. In 12:107, it is described as the “covering veil of the Wrath of God”; where see n. to 12:107. The Day of Judgment is indicated, as the Event of overwhelming importance in which all our petty differences of this imperfect world are covered over and overwhelmed in a new world of perfect justice and truth.