The Earthquake
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[99:1]
WHEN THE EARTH quakes with her [last] mighty quaking,

[99:2]
and [when] the earth yields up her burdens,

[99:3]
and man cries out, "What has happened to her?" –

[99:4]
on that Day will she recount all her tidings,

[99:5]
as thy Sustainer will have inspired her to do.

[99:6]
On that Day will all men come forward, cut off from one another, to be shown their [past] deeds.

[99:7]
And so, he who shall have done an atom’s weight of good, shall behold it;

[99:8]
and he who shall have done an atom’s weight of evil, shall behold it.

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* v.2 : I.e., all that was hitherto hidden in it, including the bodies – or the remnants – of the dead.

* v.4 : I.e., on the Day of Judgment the earth will bear witness, as it were, to all that has ever been done by man: an explanation given by the Prophet, according to a Tradition on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (quoted by Ibn Hanbal and Tirmidhī).

* v.6 : Lit., “as separate entities” (ashtātan). Cf. 6:94 – “And now, indeed, you have come unto Us in a lonely state, even as We created you in the first instance”: thus stressing the individual, untransferable responsibility of every human being.