About Surah Al-Ghashiyah

The Prophet (ﷺ) customarily recited these twenty-six verses during Friday and ‘Eid prayers, keeping their stark reality before the community. Sent down early in Makkah between Sūrat al-Dhāriyāt and al-Kahf, the text countered the polytheists' mockery of life after death. Early Muslims knew it both as Al-Ghashiyah—The Overwhelming—and by its initial question: Hal atāka (Has There Come to You).

The verses open by splitting humankind into two realities, contrasting the disgraced, toiling faces of the wicked in Hell with the serene, joyful expressions of the righteous. Moving from the unseen afterlife to the physical present, the text challenges deniers to examine the camels, the sky, the mountains, and the earth as irrefutable proof of Allah’s power to recreate. From these massive signs of creation, the focus narrows to console the Prophet (ﷺ), confirming his duty is only to warn.

The ultimate fate of those who reject the message is fixed. Every denier will inevitably return to Allah, who will mete out the full measure of their punishment.

Surah 88 Juz 30 26 verses

Al-Ghashiyah

The Overwhelming Meccan

088

Surah Info Reflections Layers

بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Have you heard tell [Prophet] about the Overwhelming Event?

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On that Day, there will be downcast faces,

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toiling and weary,

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as they enter the blazing Fire

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and are forced to drink from a boiling spring,

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with no food for them except bitter dry thorns

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that neither nourish nor satisfy hunger.

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On that Day there will also be faces radiant with bliss,

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well pleased with their labour,

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in a lofty garden,

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where they will hear no idle talk,

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with a flowing spring,

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raised couches,

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goblets placed before them,

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cushions set in rows,

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and carpets spread.

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Do the disbelievers not see how rain clouds are formed ¹

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how the heavens are lifted,

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how the mountains are raised high,

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how the earth is spread out?

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So [Prophet] warn them: your only task is to give warning,

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you are not there to control them.

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As for those who turn away and disbelieve,

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God will inflict the greatest torment upon them.

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It is to Us they will return,

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and then it is for Us to call them to account.

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End of Al-Ghashiyah

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