As the hadith said:

قَالَ النَّبِي صَلَى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : ((طَلَبُ العِلْمِ فَرِيضَةٌ على كُلِّ مسلمٍ )) عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ قَالَ 

Anas ibn Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.”

 

First of all, Intention 

Intention is the root of our worship and actions. In the famous hadith that many of us may have heard many times, Rasulullah s.a.w. mentioned,

إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ، وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ لدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوْ امْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ

“Indeed, an action starts with the intention. A person will be rewarded only for what he intended. Thus, he whose migration (hijrah) is for Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His Messenger; but he whose migration was for some worldly thing he might gain, or for a partner he might marry, then his migration is to that which he migrated for.”

(Sahih Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

 

Next is Study with Ihsaan (excellent)

Allah prescribed excellence and not perfection in all our works. 
 Prophet Muhammad  said:

 

Last but not least is Exhibit Tawakkul (reliance of Allah)

This is an essential etiquette for seeking knowledge and in every endeavor we undertake because
 we acknowledge that any success that comes our way is through Allah  alone and is not a result of our efforts. Allah  has said:

 

*oleh itu, marilah kita berusaha untuk beribadah kepada allah dengan bersungguh sungguh dan penuh khushuk untuk mencapai tahap ihsan dalam beribadah.

 

This Surah gives us some details of the scenes of the Last Day. Some of these signs include the following:

(a) When the sun is shrouded in darkness (turns into a sphere)
(b) When the stars lose their light
(c) When the mountains are made to vanish
(d) When the seas boil over
(e) when the she camel about to give birth is left untended.

1)When the sun is darkened

Kuwwirat comes from the word takwir and literally means to wrap something up and is used specifically for turbans. The idea is that the light of the sun is stretched out and is compared to the long stretched cloth of the turban that gets folded up just like Allah (swt) will fold up the light on the day of judgement. When a turban wraps the head, the head gradually becomes invisible. So, the day will lose its light gradually and it will darken. Others have interpreted this more literally and understood that the sun itself will look like it has been folded up and covered up.

2) And when the stars fall

Inkidaar means to lose colour or brilliance. So, the stars will become dull. The essence of inkidaar means to fall. Two things have happened, the most brilliant portion of the day has collapsed in verse one and the most stellar feature of the night, the stars that are scattered across the sky, has also lost its light and brilliance and is falling apart.

3) When the mountains are made to move away

And when even the mountains are made to move casually. Here again the subject precedes the verb adding emphasis and indicating that a tougher and more adamant Kaffir is being spoken to. In Surah An-Naziat Allah (swt) mentions the mountains that are pegged into the ground and now he is saying they are going to be uprooted and then move casually. The word sayaarat in Arabic originally meant the caravan of old with camels and horses and luggage which travels slowly. Saara means to casually take a walk in a garden. So the mountains here will almost float away.

4) And when the pregnant she-camels are left untended

So first you don’t believe your eyes when you see what’s happening to the sun followed by the stars falling and then it seems like the mountains are moving. I’Shaar in Arabic is the plural of o’shara which are the she-camels that are ten months pregnant and this comes from a’shara which is the number ten. This was very important to the Arabs as it was the most coveted, precious and honoured of wealth with them and a source of great pride. Allah (swt) says that these will be o’ttilat. A’tala means to become useless or to be neglected and Arabs would even use this word to refer to a woman that was not decked out in jewellery or beautified and thus she is useless in society, as if a woman is not beautified what use would she be. Mu’attal is a person who loses his job and is put to waste.

So Allah says of this precious asset that normally has security surrounding it, a rope on it, branded with it’s owners name, being taken care of and a precious asset not to be left alone on that day will be rendered useless to him when he sees what is happening around him and it will be let go of. Imagine you are in a burning building. You would leave all your wealth in there to get outside as only your survival is important to you.

5)When the wild beasts are gathered together

The word wahsh is a wild animal or beast that does not have affection for other creatures and cannot be domesticated. It is the opposite of the word ins which is a human being which can show affection to others. Another meaning of this word is a person who walked in the earth with wahsh which means that he walked on the earth by himself and indicates that he was difficult to get along with and thus walked without company. Allah (swt) says that these wild animals will be gathered together.

Hashara means to herd animals specifically and when you gather animals you do not do so on their own accord, you force them. This is also one of the names of the Day of Resurrection – the day of herding as humans against their will, will be herded towards that one field to be questioned.

Allah (swt) does not mention domesticated animals being herded but specifically wild animals, animals that would never be next to each other. The closest thing to this in this dunya is for example a flood where two animals that would otherwise be at each others throats are together on a little patch of land with no regard to the fact that the animals killer or food is standing next to him as there is a greater fear. So when all these calamities occur on that day these animals will lose their natural instinct of attack or fear of each other and instead will have a greater thing to worry about and so stand next to each other, herded together. Contrast this with the previous surah where Allah (swt) describes human beings running away from one another when normally they would go towards one another and in this surah animals are running towards one another whereas normally they would not. By nature these animals would not be herded together and humans would be together. Everything we have been use to is reversed.

6) When the seas are set alight (or overflow)

Abhur means a few bodies of water and bihaar means all bodies of water or oceans. So, bihaar is a plural of multitude or a super plural. Tasjeer is when you have a large pot into which you throw coal and fuel and then set it alight, so a pot which is full of not just fuel but things used to excite flames. The implication of this is that the water of the ocean will actually turn into fuel for a fire. An amazing transformation as water is used to put out flames and is the opposite of something considered to excite flames. The fire will be so powerful it will seem as if the oceans are just drops in it. Another interpretation is that the hellfire is located under the oceans and due to the flames the oceans bubble and boil over and flooding takes place. So the oceans being set alight could be figuratively or literally.

All of the themes revealed earlier were not about humans but either animals or huge things like oceans or mountains or the sun. The things that Allah (swt) has mentioned have gradually been getting worse and continues with the worst of all so far. There are two plurals of nafs, anfus and nufoos. Anfus is the weaker plural and nufoos is the multitude plural. So, every single individual will be paired together. Tazweej in Arabic means to pair something, for example, when a father marries his daughter off. Here it is being used in a larger sense. Umar ibn Khattab in tafseer of this verse says that this means that the people who did good in this world will be paired with the people who did good in this world in Jannah and the people who did evil in this world will be paired with those who did evil in this world in hellfire. Two other opinions are that firstly every person will be paired with their own i.e. the souls that had departed the body will be reunited and secondly that people will be reunited with their deeds. The strongest opinion is that of Umar and this is supported elsewhere in the Quran.

The word nafs is commonly translated as soul and has many derivatives in it’s root form. Anfaas in Arabic means breaths. Tanaffas also means to take a breath. Tannaafus means to compete in the spirit of healthy and friendly competition. All these things have back and forth in common. What this has in common with nafs is that an-nafs is something that is always going back and forth between the states that Allah (swt) describes either moving towards desire and humiliation and then towards another desire, thus, it is always in motion.

8) When the infant girl, buried alive, is asked

It is commented that the one who buried the child and the one who bore her meaning the father who commanded to bury her will both be in the hellfire. Mow’uda is the woman or female who is buried alive and she will be asked. This is an attack on the Quraysh. When a girl was born it was a very ugly event. The mother would go to a ditch when she was about to give birth and bury her child if it was a girl. One of the reasons for this is because it was a question of an Arab’s manhood if he was unable to produce a male. Secondly, when a daughter grows up she could marry into a different tribe which would be a source of humiliation for the father and his tribe. Muhammad (saw) guaranteed Jannah for the one who could raise three daughters properly but not three sons so why do even today Muslims who should know better hanker after boys.

Why is the killer here not being questioned? This is because when the father decided to kill his daughter no one was there to question his decision. The daughter could not complain to anyone, she had no means to defend herself and no one was there to hear her voice. So now, Allah (swt) gives a voice to the person who did not have a voice and could not speak for themselves – the oppressed. On the Day of Judgement, the oppressed, those whose cries were not heard in this life, will be the first to be judged, the first to be empowered as these were the ones that desperately waited for justice. The fact that the killer is not even questioned illustrates the extent to which Allah (swt) is angry with the killer that he does not even deserve to be spoken to. Allah (swt) will talk to the victim and not even turn to him. This is a style used in the Quran against who Allah (swt) is extremely angry with. For example, on the Day of Judgement Allah (swt) does not scold the Christians for associating partners with him (swt). Instead you find a dialogue between Allah (swt) and Esa (as) but that’s not because he is angry with Esa (as) it’s because the Christians who altered Esa’s (as) teachings do not deserve to be addressed as they did such a big crime. This is an illustration at how angry Allah (swt) is with these people.

In the previous surah Allah (swt) talks about how man will run away from his wife and baniihi. In classical usage baniihi refers specifically to sons and not daughters. The audience here is the kaffir and he loves his sons and this love of his sons is illustrated in his embarrassment over the daughters that appear in this surah. Also, notice there are two pregnancies mentioned in this surah, the ten month old pregnant she-camel and the baby girl that is born and buried alive. Out of these two things it is the child that would have been valued more by a decent human being. Allah (swt) first talks about the things that will scare the kaffir and then He (swt) talks about the things they love the most that they will then lose and the first of these things he mentions are his camels, not even his own flesh and blood. His child he is willing to bury but the camel is a source of pride. Also, note the daughters were sometimes buried up to the age of six.

9)For what sin was she killed

The word dhanb is used for the smallest infraction, for example a parking ticket could be seen as a small infraction. Allah (swt) is saying there is no chance of finding a big sin she might have committed so can you even find a small crime that she committed for which she deserved to die.

10) When the records are laid open

Anshara means to spread out and also means to bring to life. Thus, it will be as if the scrolls (which are the scrolls of deeds that have been recorded) are spread out and brought to life and the contents within brought to life. The word suhoof appears in the previous surah also where it refers to revelation. In this surah it refers to the scrolls enclosing all of man’s deeds. Thus, if you did not care about the former suhoof you will be in trouble with the latter suhoof. Those scriptures came so that we could fix these scriptures so the two are now complementing each other subhanallah.

Allah (swt) now mentions the sky which you would have thought would have been included in the passage where Allah was talking about the sun, stars and the mountains. However, after a break Allah (swt) now mentions the sky as it serves a literary function connected with the next verse. Samaa literally means that which is above but commonly means sky. The word kushitat comes from the verb kashata. To skin the camel once it is slaughtered is kasht, kashaat is a butcher and kishaat is the peeled skin itself. This verse could be taken literally by understanding that the sky has a skin that is peeled. However, it is more appropriate to understand the imagery here. Allah (swt) in another place in the Quran mentions the sky on the day of judgement will be red. When you peel the skin of an animal the red flesh is exposed so this illustrates how red the sky will look, so red it is as if the skin of the sky has been peeled. The sky will look red as it will reflect the vicious occurrences on earth that day.

12) When the hellfire is set ablaze

The word sa’ara is to cause a fire that towers high. So the jaheem, this vicious glaring hellfire, is given towering flame. This fire towers so high that its redness even affects the texture of the sky making the sky look as if has been peeled. In the last surah we found some faces, faces that have black dust on them and overwhelmed with black smoke. They will be overwhelmed with the smoke from this towering blazing fire that will overcome them with smoke to the extent they are blackened. So, the fire in these verses is connected to the faces in the previous surah.