Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:84
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 84 of 96
وَأَنتُمْ حِينَئِذٍۢ تَنظُرُونَ
Translation
while you gaze on-
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And you are at that moment looking on...' al-Saadi and Ibn Ashur note the helpless spectators, 'tanzurun': the family gathered around the dying, watching, utterly unable to hold back what is happening, however much they love. Ask yourself: the verse freezes on the powerlessness, everyone present can only look, none can add a single moment or reverse the leaving. I imagine that love, medicine, or will can protect the people I cherish and myself; this scene shows the limit where all of it can only stand and watch. It is a stark lesson in what I can and cannot control. And it presses the question of preparation: since I will one day be either the one leaving or the one helplessly watching, and no one at that bedside can change the outcome, what needs to be settled before that moment, because there, only looking is left?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:84 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:84 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.