The Day The Sky Will Rip Open | Surah Al-Muzzammil | Nouman Ali Khan

The Sky Tearing Open on Judgment Day

Why is the sky a bigger deal than the earth? Because we're on the earth, we're not in the sky. So we should have more concern about what's happening on the earth. The thing is, on the earth, graves are tearing open, mountains are turning into powder, and all this stuff is happening. Like, what's happening? What's happening? What's happening? And then the angels start coming down. And now you realize, because first you're like, مالها؟ What's wrong with the earth? What's going on? What's going on? And people are walking around drunk.

They're not drunk, but they're walking around like they're drunk. But when they see the sky tear open, it's not just that the sky tears open, it's like the unseen dimension has now become seen, and the army of angels is coming down, and you realize, Oh! Oh! That's what's going on. Man, compared to that, the earthquakes and the oceans, when this was a smaller problem, the angels coming down is a much bigger problem.

And that's why that's the overwhelming problem. You're watching just a short clip from our longer, deeper look of Surah Al-Muzzammil. This full series is now being released exclusively on Bayyinah TV, featuring a very deep dive into the Surah's key themes, verse-by-verse breakdowns and lessons, which you can now watch on-demand, via your mobile or on the web, or even cast to your living room TV now, and watch with your family.

The Connection to Burdens and Stress

Having said that, we move to another... By the way, stress, when someone's under stress, we say they're under a lot of pressure, or there are a lot of burdens on them, which goes back to the theme that the Surah had, which was about being under a lot of burdens. And in fact, even the reference to a baby takes us back to the beginning of the Surah very beautifully, because babies are wrapped up in blankets. So, everything just comes together really, really beautifully, if you're just paying attention to what's happening.

And then, actually, when we get there today, ayah number 19 is one of the most amazing, amazing ayat of this Surah. But before that, we even have to understand this next thing that Allah is describing, السماء منفطرة به. The sky is ripping open because of it.

The sky is ripping open because of judgment day. As if to say, judgment day is this huge event. And for this event to begin, the curtains have to be opened. And what are the curtains? The sky.

The sky is being torn open to make way for judgment day. So, what's happening on the ground is it's so stressful, and what's happening in the sky is the sky is tearing open. Others call it, because the word فطر has to do with a tear, it also has to do with beginning.

The Linguistic Meaning of Fatar

Like it's beginning to tear open. So, Allah is describing the initial moments of judgment day. That's important also because the baby has just been born, والدان is newborns.

And فطور is actually the first moment of something. That's why when Allah says, فاطر السماوات is بادئ السماوات, the one who initiated the skies, who created them for the first time. Iftar is called iftar from the same word because it's the first thing you eat.

That's why it's called iftar. So, the first of something. And when somebody starts to dig a well, the first time they stick the shovel in the ground to start digging the well, that's called فطر البئر. ابتدأ حفرها.

Like they started digging the well. So, the idea is the very initiation of the tear. Now, I want you to just understand the imagery of a tear.

The Imagery of Tearing Under Weight

Imagine something is being held together. Like imagine a bag, for example. It's a bag. And you put your groceries in that bag. And you put more, and more, and more, and more, and more. The bag is getting heavier, and heavier, and heavier.

What happens to the bottom? It starts tearing a little bit. You walk a little bit, and then, you know, the eggs are إِنَّ لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّ إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ. So, that's it's done with. So, the point is the more weight there is, the more the tear gets bigger.

But it starts somewhere, and then it gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Judgment Day is coming. The angels are descending from the sky. Allah will describe in this series of surahs, the sky will turn into doors that are being opened up.

And if you're going to keep up with the imagery, it is as if the burden of what is coming down, يَوْمًا ثَقِيلًا وَيَذَرُونَ وَرَاءَهُمْ يَوْمًا ثَقِيلًا The weight of Judgment Day that is descending on the earth, is so big that the sky itself is tearing open. So, again we come back to the imagery of burdens. Surah Al-Muzzammil, the word Al-Muzzammil was about a burden.

قَوْلًا ثَقِيلًا was about a burden. وَكِيلًا was about someone, you can't carry the burden, you're putting the burden for Allah to lift for you, to take that burden off of you. Multiple times we saw the imagery of a burden.

And now we're seeing the sky is tearing open because the burden is too much for even the sky to carry, for this to drop on human beings, meaning Judgment Day itself.

The Grammatical Analysis of "As-Sama'"

There's a subtle linguistic nuance in this ayah and I'm going to read two things. I texted my teacher today because I was confused about it, but I'll read what he said at the end. This is Ustadh Mahmood Abs, make du'a for him, he's awesome. He's my Balagha teacher. But anyway, so the first thing I'll tell you is السَّمَاء in Arabic, which means sky, generally is considered feminine.

So, you say for example, إِذَا السَّمَاءُ انْشَقَّتْ إِذَا السَّمَاءُ انْفَطَرَتْ وَفُتِحَتِ السَّمَاءُ The at, at, at, the ta endings on the past tense verbs that you hear, these are all indications of the past tense. So, but in this ayah, we don't see السَّمَاءُ منفطرة به We see السَّمَاءُ منفطر به So, why is the masculine being used?

The first answer to that question is there are two kinds, I don't want to give a full-on lecture of Arabic grammar, but some things you should be aware of. So, in English we have he, she, and it and he is the masculine gender, the she is the feminine gender, and it has no gender. So, it could be a camera is an it, the lights are an it, the carpet is an it, but there are other languages in which the it also has a gender. So, like Spanish, for example, the it has a gender, so, el libro and la biblioteca, for example. I believe French is like that, and Flemish is like that. So, the it has two genders. Which is, again, it's easier if you have those kinds of language backgrounds.

In Arabic, the it also has a gender. Now, this is different from the Farsi language, where there's only masculine and feminine, and, in fact, there's not even masculine and feminine. او is for the guy, and او is for the girl. Which او؟ I don't know. It's all او. So, that means he and she, same word. No problem. The Persians made it easier. But the Arabic language has that. It's a distinction between he, she, and then the it masculine and the it feminine.

But the basic idea is the word he and she are biological also, aren't they? He is for a male, and she is for a female. But, you know, the sun is feminine in Arabic, but that doesn't mean the sun is a female. And I told you yesterday that wine is feminine, and the staff is feminine. Remember that? The staff is feminine in Arabic, but that's not because the staff is a girl. And the moon is masculine, not because the moon is a boy. That's not the reason.

The sun is not feminine because you get burnt by it. That's not why it's feminine. And the moon is not masculine because he hangs out at night. That's not the reason. But anyway, the point is that when you have these, we call them fake feminines in my grammar class, when you have these fake feminines, you're not committed to respecting the fake feminine. So, you could say, الشمس طالع and you could say الشمس طالعة and they're both correct. You could say طلع الشمس and you could say طلعت الشمس. Both of them.

So you could use the it that is masculine and you could also use the it that is feminine for مؤنث سماعي, for something that the Arabs just started using. So from that sense, in the grammatical sense, السماء منفطر به is halal. It's no problem. Because it's مؤنث سماعي, it's not an issue.

Beyond Grammar: Communication Psychology

But grammar is not the only thing we use to understand language. Grammar is just a base. Above grammar is بلاغة. A huge part of بلاغة is communication psychology. Nowadays, we can call it communication psychology. Subtle things you say and you mean something by them.

You take a little bit of a shot at somebody. If somebody, for example, says, Hey, what are you looking at? And you say nothing. You said nothing. But you could mean by that, that I'm looking at you, which is the same as nothing. But you got to be a little bit deeper to understand that. Or somebody might even think you said something. What are you looking at? Nothing. I thought so. And they confirm that they are. So, depends on your linguistic skill, your communication psychology, what level, do you get it? Do you not get it? It could just fly over your head.

It requires a certain level of sharp ear to be able to pick up on certain things when you're communicating. From that lens, I want you to know that there's a general expectation that the sky is feminine. There's a general expectation. So by using the masculine, even though grammatically it's allowed, that doesn't mean that the expected version was used. This is an unexpected usage. So something subtle is being done here.

Another example of that is وَقَالَ نِسْوَةٌ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ قَالَ نِسْوَةٌ But what would the Arab expect usually? قَالَتْ نِسْوَةٌ So the subtle thing that's being done there for example, could be that women started talking about the scandal that happened between Yusuf and the wife of the minister. They started talking about this lady. But it wasn't just women. It was women and also some men that were talking.

Because women were talking to their husbands and people were talking. But mainly it was women talking but not just women talking. So when you use the masculine, you are in a gentle way including more. In a subtle way, you're not limiting it to just the women. But you didn't come out and say men also. You gave them the main role but you didn't limit it to them. You understand? So that's one of the ways what the مذكر does. It's أَعَمُّ وَأَشْمَلُ So it's more general and it incorporates more.

One of the other things that this does is that it's خِلَافُ الطَّبِيعَةِ So the women were talking but that's not a very ladylike thing to do. So they were doing something against their nature. The good nature of women is to be modest and to not talk about things that are not modest. So the fact that they were going against their nature is gently illustrated with the verb going against the noun's nature.

You understand? So from that perspective, if you see السَّمَاءُ منفطر به it's as if the sky on that day will go against its previous nature. It's going to defy its norm. And it may be that because the masculine is more encompassing, it's أَشْمَلُ that the sky tearing open may mean that it's not just the sky that's going to tear open.

Graves are also going to tear open. Mountains are also going to tear open. Oceans are also going to tear open. But man, even though you're seeing mountains tear open and oceans tear open and castles tear open and buildings tear open you're going to see cities tear open. Even though you're seeing everything tear open when you look up and you see the sky tear open you're going to forget about everything that's happening on the earth because the main event is the sky tearing open but the possibility of other things tearing open is left there with the masculine السَّمَاءُ منفطر به

So that's one possible indication of this gentle thing that's happened in this ayah because of Judgment Day. Because you know, the thing is this why is the sky a bigger deal than the earth? Because we're on the earth, we're not in the sky. So we should have more concern about what's happening on the earth. The thing is, on the earth graves are tearing open, mountains are turning into powder and all this stuff is happening. Like, what's happening, what's happening, what's happening? And then the angels start coming down.

And now you know, you realize What's wrong with the earth? What's going on? And people are walking around drunk. وَتَرَى النَّاسَ سُكَارًا وَمَا هُم بِسُكَارًا They're not drunk but they're walking around like they're drunk. But when they see the sky tear open it's not just that the sky tears open it's like the unseen dimension has now become seen and the army of angels is coming down and you realize, oh that's what's going on.

Man, compared to that the earthquakes and the oceans this was a smaller problem the angels coming down is a much bigger problem. And that's why that's the overwhelming problem. So it's almost as if this ayah is explaining the stress of the baby in the previous ayah. How will you protect yourself if you disbelieve in a day when baby's hair turns gray, why will it turn gray? Because the sky is going to be torn open. So just like they are just born and the mother literally tears open for the child to be born now the sky is being torn open for a new world to be born. This world is dead and a new world is being born the world of the akhira is being born and brought into existence.

Teacher's Detailed Analysis

So on this I asked Ustadh Abs also his opinion on the word samaa so I'm going to read some things from him because he's so cool. كلمة سماء ليس عاقلا لذلك التذكير جائز So first of all it's not a biological masculine therefore using the masculine is fine. كلمة سماء عند العرب تذكر وتأنث According to the Arabs you can use masculine or feminine for the word samaa.

أو كلمة منفطر مذكرة لأنها على النسب كما قال امرأة حامل So it could be just like they say about a woman who's pregnant they say she's carrying حامل they don't say حاملة because it's obvious so they don't have to add the taa اي ذات حامل وامرأة مردع اي ذات ارضاع So a woman that's breastfeeding they say مردع but they don't say necessarily مردعة that's why for a wife you can also use زوج you don't have to actually use زوجة وسماء منفطر اي ذات انفطار meaning the sky منفطر meaning the sky that possesses that now has tears

كلمة سماء اسم جنس that's the fourth opinion now كلمة سماء اسم جنس جمعي مفرده سماءة that this is actually a collective noun سماء is not singular it's actually an encompassing noun and its singular is actually سماءة او سماوة another singular of it is سماوة with a واو because همزة and واو get replaceable with each other in Arabic وهتان الكلمتان استخدمها العرب مثل شجر وشجرة واسم الجنس الجمعي اسم الجنس these kinds of words usually if they're used in that meaning it's used in the masculine فالسماء مؤنثة تدل على السماء المعروفة والسماء مذكرة تدل على كل السماوات so he's saying when you see the word sky being used feminine it's referring to the sky that we see but when you see the سماء being used in the masculine it may be a reference to all of the skies together so all seven skies whatever is above, everything got included because this is اسم الجنس

وهذا الرأي هو الذي أرجحه this is the opinion I prefer فيكون معنى الآية according to this the آية would mean كل السماوات منفطرة في يوم القيامة دون استثناء all the skies that lie above will all tear open on judgment day with no exception ويشمل ايضا السقف لأن العرب تسمى السقف البيت سماعا the meaning also includes the roof every roof will tear open this is pretty cool because you know when judgment day begins some people might want to hide inside a building or inside a bunker or inside a cave everything above you will tear open I'm indoors and everybody else is outdoors so it incorporates that too

إذن كل السماوات وكل الأبنية وكل ما يطلق عليه اسم السماء حقيقة أو مجازا سينفطر في هذا اليوم والله أعلم thank you so much Ustadh Abis so that means all the skies, all the buildings and anything that you can consider above you will be torn open you are entirely left exposed on judgment day

His Promise is Fulfilled

كان وعده مفعولا his promise is meant to be fulfilled or is as good as fulfilled this last part of the ayah is actually the Qur'an describing a really beautiful concept in the Qur'an only one other place we see وعده مفعولا in Surah Al-Isra كان وعده مفعولا that the Israelites experienced destruction and Allah says that was a promise that was fulfilled so مفعول means something that got done something that has been acted on is مفعول so if I told you to do something and you did it I say did you do it? you say نعم مفعول you could say مفعول meaning it got done it got done now Allah is saying his promise or its promise has been done that's what Allah is saying

so first of all وعده has two meanings وعده has two meanings it could mean the promise of Allah has already been fulfilled that's one meaning or has already been acted on the second meaning is the promise of judgment day because the who could refer to يوم القيامة the promise of judgment day has been fulfilled but that's confusing because it hasn't been fulfilled it hasn't been acted on it didn't happen yet

وَكَانَ وَعْدُهُ مَفْعُولا as if it's already done this is Allah describing to us something about time we live in basically four dimensions length, width, depth and time these are the dimensions in which we exist and so if you think of these four dimensions think of them like a bag and Allah is holding this bag he's above these dimensions now if you think of I don't want to get too like quantum physics with you because I'm bad at it myself but if you draw a line on a piece of paper just a line on a piece of paper you're looking at it from above do you only see the beginning of the line or do you see the whole line at the same time or one little bit at a time you see the beginning of the line and the end of the line because you're looking at it from above you have a view that that's three dimensional while you're looking at something two dimensional

and so if there was a creature traveling on that line then they can only experience one part of that line at a time until they reach the end of that line but you from above know where the creature started like the ant crawling on the line you know where it started you know how much progress it's made and you know what's left in front of it because you have the three dimensional view isn't it now there's four dimension now there's five and Allah is in the ghayb in a dimension above ours and He sees us and He sees where we started and He sees where we're going all of it, He doesn't have to wait to see it, He sees all of it at once Allah has the full view all at once so He's not waiting for judgment day to see how it plays out He can describe it as if it has already happened, so from God's perspective it's already been fulfilled كان وعده مفعولا from that perspective

Understanding Predestination

now I know when some people hear that they get a little bit depressed well if it's already been decided then what am I going to do then what's the point of doing anything God knows everything, I don't know it's already you know I love that for you I love that for you that Allah knows everything therefore you have vacation

and this logic this was never a problem for me, predestination was never a problem I studied philosophy and it was never a problem for me the reason it wasn't a problem for me is I get upset and that's enough reason for me to know predestination doesn't work the way we think about it you know why because if I threw this at your face you would get upset and you're not going to say well this was قدر of Allah, it's already مفعول because Allah did it you're going to look at me like hey man what did you do that for why are you getting upset with me and as soon as you're done being upset with me then you say I have a problem with القضاء والقدر bro, you just a second ago didn't have a problem with القضاء والقدر you said I was قادر you said it's my choice I did this to you and then you say you have no choice so I have choice and you don't have choice which way you want to go

and then of course now atheists because they're discussing consciousness they're like you know well we're just, it's just physics you know there's just subatomic particles bouncing off against each other and neurons are firing we don't control physics I can't control electrons and neutrons quarks are way too small for me to control therefore all of us in this existence are just science but we don't really have any control we don't really have then why do you want to get paid for your lecture because that wasn't under your control and because of the people that recorded your lecture and don't want to pay you for your appearance Mr. Atheist they'll just say it was physics why are you holding anybody accountable it doesn't work

but at the same time we acknowledge something about Allah Allah sees what we cannot see Allah can see the future and show it to us and that's why perhaps when Rasulullah hears about these ayats he knows something about Allah that Allah does not describe something that is going to happen as far as Allah is concerned it's a reality he is the ultimate reality he sees all reality and so he can fall unconscious from the overwhelming truth that is presented to him in these ayats even when somebody else is reciting it his promise has already been acted upon this was from Allah's perspective

but now from a human perspective from a human perspective كان actually means guarantee كان can be used in the meaning of guarantee so what that would mean is have you ever heard someone say consider it done it's as good as done that means because the word done is in the past and nothing is more guaranteed than the past the future is uncertain but the past has no doubts what's already happened is absolute so when people want to give a guarantee about the future the ultimate guarantee is consider it done the word done is about the past but I want you to think about the future as guaranteed as you think about the past and that's why they say consider it done and that's the word مفعول his promise is absolutely guaranteed and the promise of judgment day is absolutely guaranteed that's the phrasing that's being used كان وعده مفعولا

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