Surah An-Nazi'at, Ayah 3

The Tafsir of Surat An-Nazi`at (Chapter - 79) Which was revealed in Makkah

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Swearing by Five Characteristics that the Day of Judgement will occur

Ibn Mas`ud, Ibn `Abbas, Masruq, Sa`id bin Jubayr, Abu Salih, Abu Ad-Duha and As-Suddi all said,

وَالنَّـزِعَـتِ غَرْقاً

(By those who pull out, drowning.) "These are the angels who remove the souls from the Children of Adam." Among them are those whose souls are removed by the angels with difficulty, as if he is being drowned during its removal. There are those people whose souls the angels remove with ease, as if they were unraveling him (i.e., his soul from him) due to their briskness. This is the meaning of Allah's statement,

The third quality of the angels:

وَالسَّابِحَاتِ سَبْحًا (and by those who float [ in the atmosphere ] swiftly... 79:3). The word sabh literally means to 'swim' or 'float'. Here it signifies 'to glide along swiftly as in the sea where there is no mountain barrier'. The one who swims fast and goes far in swimming or a boatman who moves directly towards his final destination. The 'angels who float swiftly' refer to the quality of the angels of death who extract human souls and take them quickly towards the sky.