Surah 74. Al-Muddaththir, Ayah 29

Most of the commentators interpret the above elliptic phrase in the sense of "changing the appearance of man" or "scorching the skin of man". The rendering adopted by me, on the other hand, is based on the primary significance of the verb laha - "it appeared", "it shone forth" or "it became visible". Hence, the primary meaning of the intensive participial noun lawwah is "that which makes [something] visible". In the above context, it relates to the sinner's belated cognition of the truth, as well as to his distressing insight into his own nature, his past failings and deliberate wrongdoings, and the realisation of his own responsibility for the suffering that is now in store for him: a state neither of life nor of death (cf.{87:12-13}).