Tadabbur Surah an-Naba&#039;

1st Part: Questioning the Judgement Day
1. People being obnoxious about the Judgement Day
  1. Their tones are like, 'seriously?', 'are you for real?'. More to like 'oh why are you so stupid?'
2. 'Naba'' can means news for small matters. On big matters, Naba' means a big deal.
  1. Naba (news) + Azim (great)
3. "Kalla saya'lamun" is mentioned twice
  1. Allah did not respond intellectually/ rationally to their argument because they didn't give rational questions (sarcastic instead).
  2. The Quran is not a book of pure logic/ science textbook. The Quran is a conversation.
    1. Conversations sometimes with prophets/believers/hypocrites/worst of the disbelievers
4. 3 threats in the entire Quran
  1. destruction of nation
    1. if you dont listen to your Prophet, you're gonna be destroyed
    2. nuh, lut, syuaib, saleh, firaun
    3. with the last prophet muhammad, with him ended the destruction of nation's threat. last threat the threat were issued was to Quraisy.
  2. judgement day
  3. hell
2nd Part: Worldly life in pairs
1. Know that what we make is weak compared to what He made. Allah described about mountains, nights, etc and the way He described could be used to compare with something we do.
  1. Ayat 6: "Didnt we make the earth into a bedding?"
    1. We also make beds but compare that to the bed Allah made. All kinds of creatures sleep in the bed He made.
    2. mihad is also a cradle for a baby, used for a bed
  2. Ayat 7: "He makes mountains into pegs"
    1. pegs, in ancient arabic also refers to 'tents'. like how the shape of mountains are like tents
    2. We also make tents but when the wind blows what happens to your tents?
  3. Ayat 9: "And made your sleep [a means for] rest"
    1. when you're asleep, you are 'cutoff' from work, business etc
  4. Ayat 10: "And made the night as clothing"
    1. We cover our body but He covers the nights.
    2. you could try to cover it up to turn the lights on but none of these lights will overpower the overwhelming darkness
  5. Ayat 11: "And made the day for livelihood"
    1. He made the mornings into a time where earnings can be made.
    2. At night, the streets are closed, the shops closed, the stock market is closed, it's hard for you to do business at night.
  6. Ayat 12: "Did We not build seven strong [heavens] above you,"
    1. He placed above you 7 intense buildings (sky)
    2. You can be in awe with ceilings in big buildings, chandeliers etc but look at His ceilings, he has a 'chandelier' too (Sun)
2. Allah didn't mention the pair for 'sleep'
  1. made everything in pairs; earth & mountains, sky & sun, man & woman, night & day. But SLEEP? Supposedly WAKING UP but Allah didn't mention it.
  2. 'Going to sleep' in the Quran is the closest thing you could experience closest to DEATH.
    1. that's why after we wake up, the prayer is 'alhamdulillah to the God who gave us life after He gave us DEATH'
  3. We could've always come to our conclusions ourselves that after sleep is waking up.
    1. So Allah is trying to tell us that, why cant you come up to your own conclusion that after death is RESURRECTION?
  4. Death is paired to the day of judgement
3. All pairs will make new life
  1. Sky (rain) and earth will make new life
  2. Man & woman will make babies
  3. The death & Judgement Day make new life- heaven/hell
3rd Part: Judgement Day
1. The 'pairs' are then separated
2. The purpose of life and the day of judgement is for heaven
  1. "what will Allah get for punishing you?"
3. In the rest of the surah Allah talks about Yaumul Qiyamah but He calls it as Yaumul Fasli
  1. In the previous surah Allah asks about "what will you have any clue about Yaumul Fasl" but he didn't answer that question. He answers it in this surah.
  2. Fasl is gap/ separation between 2 things
    1. the day on which I will be separated from my status, wealth, friends, family, opportunities, false hopes, etc.
4. Mountains will be made to sail (Ayat 20)
  1. Where in previous ayat it was said to resemble pegs
  2. "Suyyirat", Mirage: as if made to move smoothly
  3. Why is earth being flattened? Why is mountains moving away?
    1. It's making room for people coz ALL generations are being resurrected
    2. Rooms have to be made for scrolls of deeds to be laid out
4th Part: Heaven and Hell
1. Hell
  1. In the middle of the surah, we have the evaluation of the previous life and the reward in the next life
  2. Hell is overstuffed with people
    1. but when Allah asks Hell is that enough, Hell said, give me more.
  3. Jahannam is multiple life sentences. Psychological torture.
    1. Say jahannam is 83 years- a year is 365 days, and each of those days is 1000 years from our time. Could've just said FOREVER. The pain of waiting is there. The day you could come to Heaven feels like it's not coming.
  4. 'jazaan'- earned
    1. jazaan wifaqan- earned compensation
  5. 2 books
    1. Book of revelation- Quran
    2. Book of deeds
      1. Allah records even the littlest things- even the emotions showed on your face.
2. Heaven
  1. No useless talks or lies in jannah. Everything will have meaning.
5th Part: Humility in Judgement Day
1. Comparing to the 1st passage, they became humble. No more nonsense or asking sarcastic questions
2. Ayat 40: "Indeed, We have warned you of a near punishment on the Day when a man will observe what his hands have put forth and the disbeliever will say, "Oh, I wish that I were dust!"
  1. "what his hands have put forth"- referring to your deeds, what your hands have produced.
    1. our deeds will be showed on scrolls, nothing will be hidden
  2. "Oh, I wish that I were dust!"
    1. word of regrets, hoping for something that is impossible
Sources:
1. Surah An-Naba - Day 1 - Ramadan with the Quran - Nouman Ali Khan
2. Al Naba-Part 1 | Night 1 | Nouman Ali Khan [Ramadan 2017]
3. Al Naba-Part 2 | Night 1 | Nouman Ali Khan [Ramadan 2017]
4. Tafseer Surah An-Naba Part 4 - Alomgir Ali
Notes:
1. Quran to us is a book, we often read in translation
  1. original experience is by hearing words, no papers, not a silenced experience but lived experience. often the power of the quran is hard to capture when you translate it