Sūrah 69 · Āyāt 13–24

The Trumpet, the Throne, and the Companion of the Right (verses 13–24)

The second movement turns from history to the Event itself. "When the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted and pounded with one pounding, then on that Day the Befalling (al-waqi'a) befalls." The present sources read the cosmic upheaval in close agreement, differing chiefly on which blast is meant: al-Mizan judges from the context that it is the second blast, the one that revives the dead, taking "single" as a sign of the effortless, irresistible execution of divine power; Tabarsi and Tusi record both views (the first blast — 'Ata' / the last — Muqatil, al-Kalbi), Tusi favouring the first ("at which whoever is in the heavens and earth is thunderstruck"). All explain the dual fa-dukkata by the earth being taken as one whole and the mountains as another, and gloss wahiya (v. 16) as the heaven grown "frail," weak as carded wool after its former solidity — al-Qummi and al-Burhan adding the stark gloss batila ("void").

On the eight bearers of the Throne (v. 17), the sources open two registers. The lexical-mainstream reading (Tabarsi, Tusi, and al-Mizan) takes the angels as ranged on heaven's sides (arjaa) awaiting their charge, and the "eight" as eight angels — Tabarsi and Tusi citing the Prophetic report that the present four bearers are reinforced to eight on that Day, while Ibn 'Abbas read "eight rows" beyond counting. Al-Mizan stresses the verse is silent on whether the eight are angels, and suggests the whole scene depicts the manifestation of the angels, heaven and Throne to man (citing al-Furqan 25, al-Zumar 75). Alongside this, al-Qummi and al-Burhan preserve the distinctively Shi'i tradition — as-attributed — that the Throne signifies knowledge ('ilm) and its eight bearers are four of the first (Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus) and four of the last (Muhammad, 'Ali, al-Hasan, al-Husayn); al-Mizan itself relays this Qummi report, noting some narrations make the eight specific to the Resurrection. Al-Burhan adds al-Sadiq's image of the four cosmic-form bearers (man, rooster, lion, ox).

At "On that Day you are presented; not a hidden thing of you stays hidden" (v. 18), Tabarsi and Tusi share the tradition of Ibn Mas'ud and Qatada of the three presentations (two of excuses and dispute, the third the flying of the scrolls into the hands), all insisting God presents creatures not to learn what He already knows but to manifest it. Al-Mizan frames this as the Day the permanent realities of God's dominion become undeniably manifest (al-Tariq 9, Ghafir 16). The passage then parts mankind in two, and this movement renders the first group: "as for him who is given his book in his right hand." Tusi alone preserves al-Farra's sabab — the verse revealed concerning the believer Abu Salama b. 'Abd al-Asad (his disbelieving brother al-Aswad occasioning v. 25). All read his cry "Here, read my book!" as joy that it holds nothing but obedience, and gloss zanantu (v. 20) as certainty, not conjecture (Ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid, Qatada) — he was sure he would meet his reckoning, so he believed and worked for it. The reward — a "pleasing life," a "lofty Garden," its "clusters near at hand" (Tabarsi's passport hadith from Salman; al-Qummi's "reached by the standing and the seated") and the address "Eat and drink wholesomely" — Tusi parses as permission (ibaha) shading into command, the food wholesome and without waste. Here too al-Qummi and al-Burhan carry the as-attributed reading, which al-Mizan explicitly classes as jary (application) rather than exclusive tafsir, that the Companion of the Right is 'Ali (and his Shi'a), the "book" being the affirmed imam of one's age (al-A'raf 46; al-Isra 71) — al-Burhan gathering chains for it from both Shi'i and Sunni transmitters (Ibn Mardawayh from Ibn 'Abbas, al-Khwarazmi, Ibn al-Maghazili), and glossing "the days now past" (v. 24) as "the days of fasting."