Al-Qur'an Surah Al-Haqqah Verse 7

Mufti Taqi Usmani

that He imposed on them for seven nights and eight consecutive days; so you could see them thrown on the ground, as if they were trunks of hollow palm-trees.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

which Allah unleashed on them non-stop for seven nights and eight days, so that you would have seen its people lying dead like trunks of uprooted palm trees.

Ruwwad Translation Center

which He unleashed against them for seven successive nights and eight days, so you would see the people lying dead as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees.

A. J. Arberry

violent that He compelled against them seven nights and eight days, uninterruptedly, and thou mightest see the people laid prostrate in it as if they were the stumps of fallen down palm-trees.

Abdul Haleem

that God let loose against them for seven consecutive nights, eight consecutive days, so that you could have seen its people lying dead like hollow palm-trunks.

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

To which He subjected them for seven nights and eight days in succession, so that thou mightest have seen men during it lying prostrate, as though they were stumps of palms ruined.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession; so that thou couldst see the (whole) people lying prostrate in its (path), as they had been roots of hollow palm-trees tumbled down!

Abul Ala Maududi

which He let loose upon them for seven nights and eight days in succession; so that (if you had been there) you might have seen people lying prostrate, as though they were uprooted trunks of hollowed palm trees.

Ahmed Ali

Which He sent to assail them for seven nights and eight days running. You should have seen the people prostrate like the decayed trunks of date-palm trees.

Ahmed Raza Khan

He forced it upon them with strength, consecutively for seven nights and eight days – so you would see those people overthrown in it, like trunks of date palms fallen down.

Ali Quli Qarai

which He clamped on them for seven gruelling nights and eight days, so that you could see the people there lying about prostrate as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees.

Ali Ünal

Which God made to prevail against them for seven nights and eight days, uninterruptedly, so that you could have seen people lying overthrown in it, as though they were hollow trunks of palm-trees.

Amatul Rahman Omar

Which He let loose on them for seven nights and eight days, with no break, so that (if you had been there) you would have seen the people lying therein sprawled (looking) as though they were hollow trunks of palm-trees fallen down.

English Literal

He manipulated/subjugated it on them seven nights and eight days ominously/severing goodness (uprooting), so you see the nation in it lying flat/mad, as if they are palm tree`s fallen/destroyed ends.

Faridul Haque

He forced it upon them with strength, consecutively for seven nights and eight days - so you would see those people overthrown in it, like trunks of date palms fallen down.

Hamid S. Aziz

Which He made to prevail against them for seven nights and eight days unremittingly, so that you might have seen the people therein prostrate as if they were the trunks of hollow palms.

Hilali & Khan

Which Allah imposed on them for seven nights and eight days in succession, so that you could see men lying overthrown (destroyed), as if they were hollow trunks of date-palms!

Maulana Mohammad Ali

And Pharaoh and those before him and the overthrown cities wrought evil.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

Which He made to prevail against them for seven nights and eight days unremittingly, so that you might have seen the people therein prostrate as if they were the trunks of hollow palms.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

Which He imposed on them for seven long nights and eight long days so that thou mightest have seen men lying overthrown, as they were hollow trunks of palm-trees.

Muhammad Sarwar

which continued to strike them for seven and eight days so that eventually you could see the people lying dead like the hollow trunks of uprooted palm-trees.

Qaribullah & Darwish

that He subjected upon them for seven nights and eight days consecutively and you might have seen them struck down as if they were the stumps of palm trees that had fallen down.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

Which Allah imposed on them for seven nights and eight days Husum, so that you could see men lying toppled, as if they were trunks of date palms, Khawiyah!

Wahiduddin Khan

which God let loose against them for seven nights and eight days unremittingly, so that you could have seen its people lying prostrate as though they were the hollow trunks of palm-trees which had fallen down.

Talal Itani

He unleashed it upon them for seven nights and eight days, in succession. You could see the people tossed around, as though they were stumps of hollow palm-trees.

Tafsir jalalayn

He forced it upon them for seven nights and eight days, the first of which was the morning of Wednesday, eight days before the end of [the month of] Shawwl, and this was at the height of winter, successively, one after the next (husman; it [the action of the wind] is likened to the repeated actions of a hsim, `one cauterizing a wound', time and again until it [the blood] has been cut off, inhsama) so that you might have seen the people therein lying prostrate, lying dead on the ground, as if they were the hollow, collapsed, trunks of palm-trees.

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

سَخَّرَهَا عَلَيْهِمْ

Which Allah imposed on them,

meaning, He made it overpower them.

سَبْعَ لَيَالٍ وَثَمَانِيَةَ أَيَّامٍ حُسُومًا

for seven nights and eight days Husum,
Husum means, complete, successive and unfortunately evil.

Ibn Mas`ud, Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Ikrimah, Ath-Thawri and others all said,

"Husum means in succession."

It has been reported that Ikrimah and Ar-Rabi` bin Khuthaym both said,

"It means it was unfortunately evil upon them."

This is similar to Allah's statement,

فِى أَيَّامٍ نَّحِسَاتٍ

in days of calamity, (41;16)

It has been said that it is that which people now call A`jaz (apparently used to mean evil devastation).

It seems as though the people took this term from Allah's statement,

فَتَرَى الْقَوْمَ فِيهَا صَرْعَى

كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ خَاوِيَةٍ




so that you could see the people lying toppled, as if they were A`jaz (trunks) of date palms, Khawiyah!

Ibn `Abbas said about,
خَاوِيَةٍ
(Khawiyah),

"It means ruined."

Others besides him said,

"It means dilapidated."

This means that the wind would cause one of them (palm tree) to hit the ground, and it will fall down dead on his head. Then his head would shatter and it would remain a lifeless corpse as if it were without branches, motionless.

It has been confirmed in the Two Sahihs that the Messenger of Allah said,

نُصِرْتُ بِالصَّبَا وَأُهْلِكَتْ عَادٌ بِالدَّبُور

I was helped by an easterly wind and the people of `Ad were destroyed by a westerly wind.

فَهَلْ تَرَى لَهُم مِّن بَاقِيَةٍ