The Final Return in Surah Al-Qiyamah 75:26–30

— Deathbed Remorse and Fear of Tomorrow for Those Who Reject Allah's Call to Bear Witness to Al-Qiyāmah Today

Abstract

Surah Al-Qiyamah 75:26–30 offers one of the Qur’an’s most concentrated meditations on death, the collapse of human agency, and the unavoidable return to God. Classical commentators such as Ibn Kathir and modern exegetes read the passage as a severe warning directed at the heedless person whose certainty comes only when death is already at hand. The verses describe the soul reaching the collarbone (tarāqī), the futility of outside help, the dying person’s realization of separation (firāq), and the final driving (masāq) to the Lord. This paper argues that the passage combines vivid eschatological imagery with a moral demand: human beings must participate in the inner Resurrection (Qiyamah) and experience the Baptism of Allah (Ṣibghat Allāh) before physical death removes the possibility of spiritual reform. Those who reject Allah’s Call and Signs — the conditioned, brainwashed, falsehood-fed religious prisoners — will face overwhelming remorse at the deathbed, when the Hour of Judgment is approaching and the Eternal Fire is the assured punishment of a wretched, wasted life.

1. Introduction: The Imminence of Qiyamah

Surah Al-Qiyamah (“The Resurrection”) is the seventy-fifth chapter of the Qur’an, a Meccan surah of forty verses that confronts the human being with two inescapable realities: the certainty of the Day of Resurrection and the moral accountability of the self-reproaching soul (nafs al-lawwāmah). The surah opens with a double oath — by the Day of Resurrection itself and by the conscience that perpetually reproaches its owner — thereby establishing that both the cosmic event and the inner moral faculty are equally real and equally inescapable. [1]

Verses 26–30 shift the focus from the general reality of resurrection to the immediate reality of dying, thereby collapsing the distance between the eschatological “end” and the personal “end.” In this passage, the Qur’an does not merely describe death; it dramatizes the human being’s inability to control the moment of departure. The sequence is both poetic and theological: death is not random collapse but a divinely governed transfer from worldly existence to divine judgment. The passage serves as a critique of delay, self-deception, and the illusion that one can postpone spiritual seriousness indefinitely.

These verses notify of the time of approaching death when the moment of truth and fear will dawn as the soul is about to depart back to Allah. This surah mocks those transgressors who disbelieved the Announcement (An-Nabā) of Qiyamah and now, at the point of imminent death, begin to finally fear the coming judgment. They will now dread the impending death and damnation into the Pit of Fire for they had rejected Allah’s Message of Mercy, despite all His irrefutable proof, evidence, verses, lessons, signs, and revelations. [2]

2. The Surah in Context: Al-Qiyamah and Human Denial

The broader structure of Surah Al-Qiyamah is organized around the refutation of human denial. The opening verses (75:1–6) establish that man desires to “break out ahead of himself” — to live without moral accountability, asking mockingly, “When will be this Day of Resurrection?” This question is not genuine inquiry but a sneer of denial. The surah then describes the cosmic signs of the Last Day (75:7–12): the dazzling of sight, the eclipsing of the moon, the joining of sun and moon, and the human cry, “Where is the refuge?” followed by the devastating answer: “No! There is no refuge.” [3]

The surah then pivots (75:20–25) to diagnose the root cause of this denial: human beings love the immediate world (‘ājilah) and neglect the Hereafter (ākhirah). The faces of the blessed will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord; the faces of the condemned will be gloomy, certain that a back-breaking calamity is about to befall them. It is within this context of cosmic judgment and moral diagnosis that verses 26–30 arrive, bringing the reader from the cosmic scale down to the intimate, personal scale of a single dying human being.

3. Verse-by-Verse Exegesis of Surah 75:26–30

The Arabic text of Surah 75:26–30 is profound in its brevity, phonetic impact, and layered meaning. Each verse is presented below with its Arabic original, transliteration, and translation, followed by detailed exegetical commentary.

Verse 26: كَلّا إِذَا بَلَغَتِ التَّرَاقِيَ

The word kallā (كلّا) is a particle of strong negation and rebuke, here functioning as an affirmation: “Indeed! Certainly!” — as if to say, “O son of Adam, you cannot deny what I am about to describe, for it will be witnessed by your own eyes.” The tarāqī (تراقي) are the collarbones — the clavicles — the uppermost bones of the chest. When the soul reaches this point, it has already begun its ascent from the lower body, signaling that death is imminent and irreversible. Ibn Kathir notes that this is parallel to Surah 56:83: “Then why do you not (intervene) when (the soul of the dying person) reaches the throat?” [5]

Verse 27: وَقِيلَ مَنْ رَاقٍ

The word rāq (راق) admits two classical interpretations. The first, favored by Ibn Abbas and Abu Qilabah, is that it means “one who recites divine prayers of healing” — a healer or enchanter who might save the dying person by incantation. The second interpretation, noted in the Tafhīm al-Qur’ān of Maududi, relates to “ascent” (ruqīy): the question becomes one about which angels will carry the soul — those of mercy or those of punishment. [7] Either way, the verse dramatizes the utter helplessness of the dying person and those around him. No human power, no medical skill, no spiritual incantation can reverse what God has decreed.

Verse 28: وَظَنَّ أَنَّهُ الْفِرَاقُ

The word ẓanna (ظنّ) here carries the sense of certainty rather than mere conjecture — the dying person knows with absolute certainty that this is the moment of separation (firāq). The firāq is the parting from this world, from family, from wealth, from all that was loved and clung to. This is the moment when the denier’s lifelong denial collapses. Throughout his life he mocked the Resurrection, dismissed the warnings of the prophets, and pursued the immediate world. Now, at the threshold of death, the truth he denied becomes undeniable. The Tazkirul Qur’an notes: “Nobody learns a lesson from this, until he himself faces death — which takes away all opportunities for learning lessons.” [9]

Verse 29: وَالْتَفَّتِ السَّاقُ بِالسَّاقِ

This verse is among the most richly interpreted in the entire surah. The word sāq (ساق) literally means “shank” or “calf of the leg.” Classical commentators offer several interpretations. Al-Hasan al-Basri understood it literally: the two legs of the dying person become limp and are wrapped together in the shroud. Ibn Abbas, however, offers the most theologically profound reading: the two sāq represent the two worlds — the last day of this life and the first day of the Hereafter — meeting and intertwining. The agony of leaving this world is joined to the agony of the punishment awaiting the disbeliever in the next. [11] Mujahid interpreted it as “a test joined with a test,” and ‘Ikrimah as “the great matter joined with the great matter.” In the Tafhīm, Maududi notes that every disbeliever, hypocrite, and wicked person will have this agonizing experience: “agony over leaving this world and all that is in it, and the torment of being seized as a culprit.” [12]

Verse 30: إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ يَوْمَئِذٍ الْمَسَاقُ

The word masāq (مساق) is the verbal noun from sāqa, meaning “to drive,” “to herd,” or “to compel forward.” The imagery is deliberate and powerful: the soul is not merely transported but driven — compelled, with no possibility of refusal or delay — toward the Lord. Ibn Kathir explains that the soul ascends into the heavens and Allah says, “Return my servant to the earth, for verily, I have created them from it, I return them into it, and from it I will bring them out at another time.” [14] The verse teaches the fundamental Qur’anic doctrine of ownership and return: life begins with God and ends in His presence.

4. Classical Tafsir: Ibn Kathir and Ma‘arif al-Qur’an

Ibn Kathir opens his commentary on this passage with a supplication: “May Allah make us firm at that time with the Firm Statement.” This invocation reveals the gravity with which the classical tradition approached these verses. For Ibn Kathir, the passage is not merely descriptive but prescriptive: it is a warning that demands a response of faith and righteous action now, before the moment of death renders all response impossible. [15]

Ibn Kathir’s commentary on verse 27 draws upon reports from Ibn Abbas, Abu Qilabah, Qatadah, Ad-Dahhak, and Ibn Zayd — all of whom understood the verse as depicting the desperation of onlookers seeking any human means of rescue. The verse thus exposes the fundamental limitation of human power: at the moment of death, all the healers, doctors, and enchanters of the world are rendered useless.

Ma’arif al-Qur’an provides a particularly sharp moral reading. The commentary stresses that the passage draws attention to approaching death, which the unmindful man forgets until his soul comes up to his collar-bone. The healers fail to heal him, and the people look for enchanters to save him. When one shank is entwined with the other, he realizes that it is the final moments of his parting. At this juncture, neither is his repentance acceptable nor a righteous deed. Therefore, it is necessary for a wise person to make amends before this moment arrives. [16]

The following table summarizes the key classical interpretations of the five verses:

Verse	Arabic Key Term	Ibn Kathir’s Reading	Ma’arif al-Qur’an Reading
75:26	al-tarāqī (collarbones)	Soul pulled from body, reaching collarbones; denial is impossible at this stage	The unmindful man forgets death until this very moment
75:27	rāq (healer/enchanter)	Cry for a divine healer; all human help has failed	People desperately seek enchanters when healers have failed
75:28	al-firāq (parting)	The dying person knows with certainty this is the moment of separation	Realization of final parting; repentance is no longer valid
75:29	s-sāqu bi-s-sāq (shank with shank)	Two worlds meeting: end of this life + beginning of Hereafter (Ibn Abbas)	Agony of leaving this world joined to agony of punishment in the next
75:30	al-masāq (the driving)	Soul driven to the Lord; place of final return and judgment	Inescapable return to Allah; all must be driven to His presence

5. The Rejection of the Good News

The verses immediately following 75:30 make the moral point explicit: “So, he neither believed nor prayed! But on the contrary, he denied and turned away! Then he walked in conceit to his family admiring himself!” (75:31–33). This confirms that verses 26–30 are not isolated death imagery but the opening movement of a larger condemnation of heedlessness. The dying person’s terror is the harvest of a life spent ignoring revelation and moral responsibility. [17]

These condemned victims are the conditioned, brainwashed, falsehood-fed religious prisoners. They will be unable to bear the thought that their religious institutions have been rendered absolutely powerless during Al-Qiyamah to salvage even a single soul — “Where is the refuge? By no means! No place of safety!” They will be poisoned by their own jealousies and pride, their hearts heavy with the anguish that none of their religious elite were given such priceless Grace. But the Almighty Creator’s Grace is for those who accept His Divine Unity, His Oneness, His Harmony — not for followers of religious regimes battling each other for supremacy. [18]

Millions of fools and fundamentalists will have their hearts filled with rejection. The conscience of their inability to accept the Good News of Qiyamah will remain with them forever. It was Allah’s Reprieve and yet they did not accept His Offer. It was Khudda’s Mercy and yet they did not welcome His Compassion. Till their dying day they will have to live with their rebuff of Revealed Truth. Only when they are on their deathbed, all weak and feeble, will their rejection of Qiyamah finally haunt them. Only then will they fear that they deliberately defied His Grace and realize it is too late to repent. They will know that the Hour of Judgment is approaching, and that the Eternal Fire is the assured punishment of this wretched, wasted life. Only the proximity of death will bring this surety of impending doom and backbreaking calamity. Take heed, Deniers of the Resurrection, take heed! [19]

Abdullah Yusuf Ali himself warned: “The worst and most hardened sinner is the man to whom Allah’s Signs are actually brought home and who yet prefers Evil and turns away from the Light of Allah. The Signs may be in the words and guidance of a great Teacher or in some sorrow or warning, but from which he deliberately refuses to profit. The penalty — the Nemesis — must necessarily come eventually.” [20]

6. Parallel Qur’anic Passages on the Deathbed

Surah 75:26–30 does not stand alone in the Qur’an’s treatment of the deathbed. Several parallel passages reinforce and expand its message, forming a coherent Qur’anic theology of death, accountability, and the impossibility of late repentance.

Surah Al-Waqi’ah 56:83–87 provides the closest parallel:

Surah An-Nisa 4:18 provides the definitive Qur’anic statement on the rejection of deathbed repentance:

Surah Al-An’am 6:61–62 describes the angels of death who execute God’s decree: “He is the Irresistible (Supreme), over His servants, and He sends guardians over you, until when death approaches one of you, Our messengers take his soul, and they never neglect their duty. Then they are returned to Allah, their True Master. Surely, for Him is the judgement and He is the swiftest in taking account.” [23]

7. The Baptism of Allah and the Inner Resurrection

The Age of Qiyamah begins the Drive back to the Lord and grants the means to achieve the final evolution by first undertaking a spiritual cleansing on Earth with the help of the Kundalini, a built-in Divine power which the Qur’an calls the Baptism of Allah (Ṣibghat Allāh):

This self-triggered evolution, which Lord Jesus refers to as being born of the Spirit, is an absolute absolution for humans to enter His Kingdom. The Baptism of Allah for Muslims is the same “second birth” for Christians; the same dwija or “twice born” for Hindus; the same “opening of the Dsam Duar” for Sikhs; the same Self-Realization, Satori, gnosticism, and fanā of advanced spiritual seekers. These seemingly different paths are all one and the same, with no difference whatsoever as far as the pursuit of the Spirit is concerned. [25]

The Resurrection is an inner spiritual awakening, not a future physical event. The Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, inaugurated the “Age to Come” on May 5, 1970, by opening the Sahasrara. As stated in John 7:39, the Spirit could not be given until Jesus was glorified. This glorification was accomplished exclusively by the Paraclete (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi) over four decades of global ministry. She has delivered the experiential reality of the Holy Spirit, felt as the Cool Breeze, which is the definitive proof of being born again.

Orthodox theologians and clergy have failed to deliver this experiential reality, leaving their followers unprepared for the true Qiyamah. External affiliation, inherited identity, and delayed piety are shown to be insufficient when the soul is already departing. The surah’s insistence is that sincerity, worship, and truthfulness matter in this life because the next moment may arrive without warning.

8. Surah Al-Qadr and the Night of Power

Muslims have been falsely misled to believe that Ramadan is better than a thousand months since the Qur’an was revealed during that period. But the Qur’an is explicit: it is the Night of Power and Fate (Laylat al-Qadr) that is better than a thousand months:

This is the Night of Power and Fate, upheld to be better than a thousand months of Ramadan. Or is the participation in Al-Qiyamah during Al-Qadr, the Night of Power and Fate, better than a thousand months of Ramadan? Isn’t Al-Qadr, the Night of Power and Fate, better than a thousand years of Islam? [27]

Be forewarned, Deniers of the Resurrection, be forewarned! All their prayers and fasting will come to nil for they did not believe the Great Event of Al-Qiyamah, the Night of Power and Fate. The Angels and the Holy Spirit descend in that night with the permission of their Lord on every errand. Those who reject the Announcement of this Night, those who dismiss the descent of the Holy Spirit as mythology, will face the full weight of their rejection at the deathbed.

9. The Condemned and the Conditioned

The surah’s language refuses any illusion of neutrality at the end of life. The dying person does not become anonymous or absorbed into nothingness; rather, the person is being taken toward the Lord. This is crucial, because the verse joins death to accountability rather than treating death as mere biological cessation. The Qur’anic image therefore corrects any worldview in which death is final oblivion or in which human beings remain morally unaccountable after earthly life.

The phrase “to your Lord that Day will be the procession” (ilā rabbika yawma-idhin l-masāq) is especially important. Ibn Kathir and later commentators understand it as a forceful declaration that every person ultimately belongs to God’s domain and cannot evade divine claim. The “driving” imagery suggests inevitability, not violence for its own sake. In theological terms, the verse teaches ownership, return, and judgment: life begins with God and ends in His presence. [28]

This is why the text can be read as a warning against religious self-confidence. External affiliation, inherited identity, and delayed piety are shown to be insufficient when the soul is already departing. The surah’s insistence is that sincerity, worship, and truthfulness matter in this life because the next moment may arrive without warning. That is the existential urgency of the passage.

From an academic perspective, Surah 75:26–30 is a compact example of Qur’anic eschatological rhetoric. It uses bodily imagery, relational breakdown, and auditory interruption to create a scene in which the reader experiences the closing of all exits. Theologically, it binds anthropology to eschatology: what human beings are determines how they die, and how they die reflects the life they have chosen. The passage thus resists reduction to a merely “future” event; it is a present ethical critique embedded in eschatological speech.

10. Conclusion

It is a severe warning to those who reject Allah’s Signs and the call to participate in the Resurrection. True repentance and spiritual awakening must occur during one’s lifetime through the Baptism of Allah. The passage’s final movement to the Lord is not only an eschatological statement but also a profound call to live now in constant awareness of the divine presence, experiencing the inner Resurrection before the physical body reaches its inevitable end.

Be forewarned of your impending penalty, rejecters of Allah’s Signs, be forewarned of your impending penalty in the Eternal Fire for deliberately refusing to profit from God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Most Beneficent!

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Compilation, Proclamation, and Exegesis of Surahs Upholding Allah’s (SWT) Command to His Ummah — to Witness and Participate in the Resurrection.

Al-Qiyamah: A Profound Declaration of Al-Qiyamah
Al-Qiyamah (75:1-2): Oaths of Resurrection
Al-Qiyamah (75:3-4): Reassembling Bones and Fingertips
Al-Qiyamah (75:5-6): Man's Denial of Resurrection
Al-Qiyamah (75:7–10): Sun and Moon 'Joined' At Solar Eclipse
Al-Qiyamah (75:11–13): No Refuge, Only Reckoning
Al-Qiyamah (75:14–15): Man: His Own Witness and Judge
Al-Qiyamah (75:16–19): The Usurpation of Allah's Explanation
Al-Qiyamah (75:20–21): Love of The Fleeting World
Al-Qiyamah (75:22–25): Ruh’s Face Brings Either Glory Or Gloom
Al-Qiyamah (75:26–30): Death and Soul's Departure Home
Al-Qiyamah (75:31–35) – Rejection and Arrogance Of Kaffirs
Al-Qiyamah (75:36–40) – Is Resurrection Beyond Creator?
Al-Baqarah (2:138): Baptism of Allah You Were Unaware Of
Al-Baqarah (2:174): Allah Will Not Address Muslims
Al-A'raf (7:16) – Iblis: I Will Lie In Wait and Overpower Them
Al-A'raf (7:146): Allah: I Will Turn Them Away From My Signs
Al-A'raf (7:146): Allah: So Even Though They See All The Signs
Al-Hijr (15:39) – Iblis: I Will Wake (Evil) Fair and Mislead Them
An-Nahl (16:2) – Allah (SWT) Sent Down Angels With His Ruh
Al-Isra (17:85) – Muslims Given Little of Allah's (SWT) Ruh
Al-Isra (17:104): Children of Israel Gathered Again (in 1948)
Maryam (19:34) – Warning of Jesus You Were Unaware Of
Al-Hajj (22:8) – Kitab Al-Munir You Were Unaware Of
Al-Rum (30:56) – The Day of Qiyamah You Were Unaware Of
Fatir (35:9) – Winds of Qiyamah You Were Unaware Of
Yassin (36:63-68) – This Is The Hell You Were Warned Of.
Sad (38:79) – Iblis Allowed to Mislead Muslims And He Did
Fussilat (41:20–21) – Your Hands Will Testify of Qiyamah
Fussilat (41:53) – We Will Show Our Signs Within Your Soul
Az-Zukhruf (43:61): Jesus, Sign of Hour You Were Unaware
Az-Zukhruf (43:62): Satan's Deception of the Muslim Ummah
Az-Jathiya (45:7-14) – Those Who Deny Allah's Revelations
Qaf (50:20–21) – Hidden Imam Mahdi You Were Unaware
Qaf (50:41) – Listen To The Caller Emerging From Within
Qaf (50:42) – Day They Will Hear of Mighty Blast Witnessed
Qaf (50:45) – By the Caller, My Warning Is Delivered
Al Dhariyat (51:20-22) – Our Signs on Earth and Within
Al-Hadid (57:25) – Allah's (SWT) Iron Has Been Delivered
Al-Mujadilah (58:21) – My Messengers Must Prevail
Al-Saff (61:8–9) – Revelation of Light You Were Unaware
Al-Muddaththir (74:1–2) – My Cloaked One: Deliver Warning
Al-Mursalat (77:1–10): Angels Sent You Were Unaware Of
An-Naba (78:1–5): Concerning What Are They Disputing?
Al-Infitar (82:17–18) – What Will Explain To You? What Will?
Al-Mutaffifin (83:1–6) – Dealers in Fraud You Were Unaware
Al-Tariq (86:1–3) – The Night Visitant You Were Unaware
Al-Qadr (97:1–5) – Blessed Night of Power and Fate Before:
Al-Qariah (101:1–11) – Terrifying Day of Noise and Clamour


Concerning what are they disputing?
Concerning the Great News. [5889]
About which they cannot agree.
Verily, they shall soon (come to) know!
Verily, verily they shall soon (come to) know!

surah 78:1-5 An-Naba (The Great News)

"5889. Great News: usually understood to mean the News or Message of the Resurrection.”

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'n, Amana Corporation, 1989.