Tafsir of Surah Al-Qamar - Verse 8

The terrible End the Disbelievers will meet on the Day of Resurrection

Allah the Exalted says, `O Muhammad, turn away from these people who, when they witness a miracle, they deny it and say that this is continuous magic.' Turn away from them and wait until,

يَوْمَ يَدْعُو الدَّاعِ إِلَى شَىْءٍ نُّكُرٍ

(The Day that the caller will call (them) to a terrible thing.) to the Recompense and the afflictions, horrors and tremendous hardships that it brings forth,

خُشَّعاً أَبْصَـرُهُمْ

(with humbled eyes), their eyes will be covered with disgrace,

يَخْرُجُونَ مِنَ الاٌّجْدَاثِ كَأَنَّهُمْ جَرَادٌ مُّنتَشِرٌ

(they will come forth from (their) graves as if they were locusts spread abroad.) They will gather towards the area of Reckoning in such haste and crowds, in response to the caller, as if they were crowds of locusts spreading all about. Allah said,

مُهْطِعِينَ

(Hastening) meaing hurriedly,

إِلَى الدَّاعِ

(towards the caller.) without being able to hesitate or slow down,

يَقُولُ الْكَـفِرُونَ هَـذَا يَوْمٌ عَسِرٌ

(The disbelievers will say: "This is a hard Day."), meaing, `this is a hard, terrible, horrifying and distressful Day,'

فَذَلِكَ يَوْمَئِذٍ يَوْمٌ عَسِيرٌ - عَلَى الْكَـفِرِينَ غَيْرُ يَسِيرٍ

(Truly, that Day will be a Hard Day -- far from easy for the dis- believers.) (74:9-10)

مُّهْطِعِينَ إِلَى الدَّاعِ (rushing quickly towards the caller....54:8). The word muhti` in literally denotes walking quickly with one's head raised above. This, together with the two preceding verses, gives a graphic picture of the Day of Gathering or Reckoning. The people will hasten hurriedly in the direction of the voice of the Caller towards the mahshar (area of Reckoning). The words: "With their eyes humbled, "in preceding verse (7) are in no conflict with the present verse, because there will be many different occasions in mahshar. On some of these occasions, the eyes of all the people will be cast down.

God causes such events to take place in the present world as make the occurrence of Doomsday understandable in advance. An event of this type occurred in the days of the Prophet Muhammad a few years before the Hijrah, when people saw that the moon was ‘cleft in two.’ At that time, the Prophet told the people that just as the moon had broken into pieces, the world would also break into pieces and then a new world would be built. Undoubtedly, there is a lesson to be learned from such events. But this is possible only when a man applies his mind to it. Those who are slaves to their own desires, will look at such events and simply say, ‘This is magic’. They will interpret such events as they please and treat them as inapplicable to themselves. For such people even the most cogent reasoning is meaningless. They will come to their senses only when the blast of Doomsday bursts on them and deprives them of the opportunity to reform.