Surah al-Infitar (The Cleaving Asunder ) 82 : 9

Overview (Verses 9 - 16)

The surah moves on to explain the reason for man’s impudence and negligence, namely, denial of the Last Judgement. It emphatically confirms the reality of reckoning, reward and punishment: “Shun it! But you deny the Last Judgement. Yet there are guardians watching over you, noble recorders, who know all that you do. Surely the righteous shall be in bliss, while the wicked shall be in a blazing fire, which they shall enter on the Day of Judgement; nor shall they ever be absent from it.” (Verses 9-16) The English expression, ‘shun it’, is used here to render the meaning of the Arabic word, kalla, which is a command to desist and an indication of a change of subject and style. Hence the following verses are in the form of a statement.
 
“Shun it! But you deny the Last Judgement.” (Verse 9) You think that reckoning and accountability are falsehoods, and this is precisely the cause of your impudence and negligence of duties. How can any person disbelieve in the judgement and still lead a life based on goodness and right guidance? Some people may achieve a higher degree of faith: they worship God because they love Him, neither out of fear of punishment nor in hope of reward. But these people continue to believe in the Last Judgement. They fear it and look forward to it at the same time, because they hope to be with their beloved Lord. When man, however, flatly rejects the Day of Judgement he will be devoid of politeness and light; his heart and conscience are dead.
 
You deny the Day of Judgement when you will certainly face it. Everything you do in this life will be counted for or against you. Nothing is lost, nothing forgotten: “Yet there are guardians watching over you, noble recorders, who know all that you do.” (Verses 10-12) These recorders are the angels charged with accompanying people, watching them and recording all what they do and say. We do not know, and are not required to know, how this takes place. God knows that we are neither given the ability to understand it nor are we going to benefit by understanding it because it does not affect the purpose of our existence. Hence it is useless to attempt to explain by our means what God has chosen not to reveal to us of the world of imperceptibles. It is sufficient for us to feel that we do not live in vain and that there are noble recorders who note what we do, in order to be so that we are always alert and prudent.
 
Since the atmosphere of the surah is one of benevolence and nobility, the description of those recorders is that they are “noble”, so that we are shy and polite in their presence. It is only natural for people to exercise extra care not to say or do anything impolite or disgraceful when they are in the presence of people whose character reflects nobility. How careful would they be if they realized they were always in the presence of angels? The surah then arouses the most noble feelings of our upright nature by portraying this fact in such a familiar way.
 
Different Destinies
 
We are then told of the destinies of the righteous and the wicked, which are determined by the reckoning based on the recordings of the noble angels: “Surely the righteous shall be in bliss, while the wicked shall be in a blazing fire, which they shall enter on the Day of Judgement; nor shall they ever be absent from it.” (Verses 13-16) The end is certain. That the righteous shall dwell in blissful happiness and the wicked shall end in hell is already determined. A righteous person is the one who consistently does right actions, i.e. good deeds, until doing them becomes his intrinsic quality. The adjective ‘righteous’ has connotations which fit in well with nobility and humanity. The contrasting quality, ‘wickedness’, carries connotations of insolence and impudence as the wicked indulge in sinful actions. Hell is a proper recompense for wickedness. The surah emphasizes the certainty of this punishment: “which they shall enter on the Day of Judgement.” Then it re-emphasizes it: “nor shall they ever be absent from it.” They cannot escape it in the first place, nor will they be allowed to leave it, not even for a short while.