يَوْمَ يُنفَخُ فِى ٱلصُّورِ فَتَأْتُونَ أَفْوَاجًا
Yawma yunfakhu fi'l-ṣūri fa-taʾtūna afwājā "The day when the trumpet is blown and you come in throngs."
This is a choice the Qurʾān often makes in its scenes of the last day, and it was recorded in this commentary in the section on al-Qāriʿa as well: there the mountains were "cast" and people were "scattered" — both passive.
The work the passive does is this: the act remains and the agent stays off the stage. The addressee's eye is turned to the event, not to the doer of the event. And the event's irresistibility is increased by this — because no agent to be resisted is visible.
In the tradition it is widely transmitted that the blowing is given to an angel. In the text of the Qurʾān there is no name in this verse.
| View | Explanation | Ground | Its weak side |
|---|---|---|---|
| A horn / a trumpet (the majority) | Ṣūr means a horn that is blown; in Arabic it is used synonymously with qarn | The verb in the verse is blowing; what is blown is a horn. The Qurʾān's other verses use the same pattern (al-Kahf 18/99; Ṭāhā 20/102; Yā-Sīn 36/51) | — |
| Forms | Ṣūr is the plural of صُورَة (form, shape); what is meant is "the breathing of spirit into forms" | In Arabic the plural of ṣūra can come as ṣūr | Linking the verb "blowing" with "form" would be forced; moreover the particle fī (into) requires the sense of a horn |
The majority's preference is the first and its ground is strong: the particle فِى means "into"; the blowing into a form is a forced reading, whereas the blowing into a horn is direct.
"And the trumpet is blown, and whoever is in the heavens and the earth falls dead, except whom God wills. Then it is blown again, and there they are, standing and looking on." (al-Zumar 39/68)
This verse separates two blowings: one that kills and one that raises. The blowing in this sūra is the second, because "you come" follows it.
And the next sūra will relate the same event as two convulsions: "On the day when the shaker shakes, and the follower follows" (al-Nāziʿāt 79/6-7). Two neighbouring sūras give the same pair with two different words. This link will be returned to in the section on al-Nāziʿāt.
A note on words. The Qurʾān uses another word for this event too: زَجْرَةٌ وَاحِدَةٌ — "a single cry" (al-Nāziʿāt 79/13); and صَيْحَة — "a single shout" (Yā-Sīn 36/29, 53). The event, then, is sometimes related by the sound of the horn and sometimes by a shout. What is common is sound: the last day begins by being heard.
The word أَفْوَاج was treated in detail in the section on Sūrat al-Naṣr, and this verse was already named there. The findings there are not repeated; in summary: a fawj is a company that moves together; because the word comes in the plural and indefinite it gives the sense "an indefinite number of companies coming one after another"; and being in the accusative it is a circumstantial qualifier — it relates how the coming happens.
| al-Naṣr 110/2 | al-Nabaʾ 78/18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is coming | People are entering God's religion | People are coming to the place of reckoning |
| Verb | يَدْخُلُونَ — they enter | تَأْتُونَ — you come |
| Will | By their own choice | Because they are summoned |
| Person | Third plural — it is related | Second plural — it is said to the addressee |
Up to the seventeenth verse the sūra was speaking in the third person ("they question one another", "they shall know"). From the sixth verse it had moved to the second person ("the earth for you…"). And now, in the scene of the last day, the second person continues: "you come."
The addressee, that is, is drawn into the scene as he was drawn into the tableau. The one called "you" while the favours were counted is called "you" while the reckoning is related.
An observation: what a throng is is not said. Who is in which throng, and by what the throngs are divided, is not stated. This indefiniteness accords with the principle recorded in the section on al-Qāriʿa: the sūra gives the criterion, not the list.