Surah 88. Al-Ghashiyah

Has the news of the Overwhelming Event reached you 'O Prophet'?

  - Mustafa Khattab

Has the story reached thee of the Overwhelming (Event)? ⁶⁰⁹⁶

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Gashiya: the thing or event that overshadows or overwhelms, that covers over or makes people lose their senses. In xii. 107, it is described as the "covering veil of the Wrath of Allah": where see n. 1790. The Day of Judgment is indicated, as the Event of overwhenning importance in which all our petty differences of this imperfect world are covered over and overwhelmed in a new world of perfect justice and truth.

On that Day 'some' faces will be downcast,

  - Mustafa Khattab

Some faces that Day will be humiliated ⁶⁰⁹⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. lxxv. 22, 24.

'totally' overburdened, exhausted,

  - Mustafa Khattab

Laboring (hard) weary ⁶⁰⁹⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

On the faces of the wicked will appear the hard labour and consequent fatigue of the task they will have in battling against the fierce Fire which their own Deeds will have kindled.

burning in a scorching Fire,

  - Mustafa Khattab

The while they enter the Blazing Fire

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

left to drink from a scalding spring.

  - Mustafa Khattab

The while they are given to drink of a boiling hot spring.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

They will have no food except a foul, thorny shrub,

  - Mustafa Khattab

No food will there be for them but a bitter Dhari ⁶⁰⁹⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The root-meaning implies again the idea of humiliation. It is a plant, bitter and thorny, loathsome in smell and appearance, which will neither give fattening nourishment to the body nor in any way satisfy the burning pangs of hunger,-a fit plant for Hell, like Zaqqum (lvi. 52; or xvii. 60, n. 2250).

neither nourishing nor satisfying hunger.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Which will neither nourish nor satisfy hunger.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

On that Day 'other' faces will be glowing with bliss,

  - Mustafa Khattab

Other) faces that Day will be joyful.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

'fully' pleased with their striving,

  - Mustafa Khattab

Pleased with their Striving ⁶¹⁰⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Notice the parallelism in contrast, between the fate of the Wicked and that of the Righteous. In the one case there was humiliation in their faces; in the other, there is joy; where there was labour and weariness in warding off the Fire, there is instead a healthy Striving, which is itself pleasurable, -a Striving which is a pleasant consequence of the spiritual Endeavour in the earthly life, which may have brought trouble or persecution from without, but which brought inward peace and satisfaction.

in an elevated Garden,

  - Mustafa Khattab

In a Garden on high ⁶¹⁰¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The most important point is their inward state of joy and satisfaction, mentioned in verses 8-9. Now are mentioned the outer things of bliss, the chief of which is the Garden. The Garden is in contrast to the Fire. Its chief beauty will be that they will hear there nothing unbecoming, or foolish, or vain. It will be a Garden on high, in all senses,-fit for the best, highest, and noblest.