The most common position regarding the first two verses of Surah Al Waqi’ah, which is also the interpretation in Tafsir Al Jalalayn, is to consider the second verse the jazaa of the shart contained in the first verse.
Also, the most common interpretation of kadhibah in the second verse is to understand it as an adjective, in which case we would have to assume a mawsoof , such as “nafs” i.e. “nafsun kadhibatun”.
Thus, the meaning rendered would be, “When the Imminent Event (of Doom) will occur, there will be no one to deny its occurrence.”
However, in verse three, the words immediately following kadhibah are khafidah and rafi’ah, which are the exact same conjugation as kadhibah but they obviously do not refer to the assumed “nafs”, as was the case with kadhibah in the previous verse. Rather, they refer to the Event itself – Al Waqi’ah – which is when the abasing and the exalting will happen.
Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA) provides an alternative way of grammatically understanding the verses in his Tafsir book called Bayanul Qur’an. He takes verse three as the jazaa for the shart in verse one, while verse two is understood as a jumlah mu’taridah (parenthetical statement). And, within the jumlah mu’taridah, he takes the word kadhibah to be a masdar rather than a sifah in the meaning of kidhb, similar to the words ‘afiyah and kha’inah. Thus, an assumed mawsoof, such as nafs, is not required as the verse would then mean that there is no opposite possibility or alternative to the Event occurring i.e. there is no chance that it will not occur.
Here is a comparison of the two translations:
When the Imminent Event (of Doom) will occur, there will be no one to deny its occurrence. It will be abasing (some), exalting(others).
Translation by Mufti Taqi Usmani
When the Momentous Event (or Judgement Day) occurs – and there is no possibility of it not occurring – it will abase (some) and exalt (others).
Translation rendered by Mufti Yusuf Mullan from Ashraf Ali Thanwi’s tafsir
As you would appreciate, there’s a subtle, yet important distinction in how the verses are understood based on the above two interpretations.
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