قَالُوا۟ يَـٰوَيْلَنَا مَنۢ بَعَثَنَا مِن مَّرْقَدِنَا ۜ ۗ هَـٰذَا مَا وَعَدَ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ وَصَدَقَ ٱلْمُرْسَلُونَ 52
Translations
They will say, "O woe to us! Who has raised us up from our sleeping place?" [The reply will be], "This is what the Most Merciful had promised, and the messengers told the truth."
Transliteration
Qalū yā waylanā man ba'athanā min marqadnā hādhā mā wa'ada ar-rahmānu wa-sadaqa al-mursalūn
Tafsir (Explanation)
The people on the Day of Judgment cry out in distress, 'Woe to us! Who has raised us from our sleep (graves)?' They then acknowledge that what they witness is the very promise made by Allah (the Most Merciful) and that the messengers spoke the truth. According to Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari, this ayah depicts the moment of resurrection when the disbelievers awaken from death and recognize the reality of the hereafter, realizing too late that they had rejected the true warnings of the prophets.
Revelation Context
This ayah occurs in the context of Surah Ya-Sin's vivid depiction of the Day of Judgment and resurrection. The surah was revealed in Mecca during the early Meccan period and serves as a powerful reminder to the Prophet Muhammad's contemporaries about the certainty of the afterlife and divine justice. The ayah is part of a broader narrative describing the awakening of the dead and their accountability before Allah.
Related Hadiths
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: 'The best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it' (Sahih Bukhari 5027), emphasizing the importance of heeding the message of the Quran and the messengers. Additionally, in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet describes the resurrection and the people's confusion upon waking from their graves, directly relating to this ayah's imagery.
Themes
Key Lesson
This ayah serves as a profound reminder that denying the message of the prophets will lead to inevitable regret on the Day of Judgment when the truth becomes undeniable. For modern readers, it emphasizes the importance of accepting divine guidance in this life, as the opportunity for redemption exists only before death.