Sūrah 64 · Āyāt 8–10

al-Taghabun 8-10 - The Light, and the Day of Mutual Loss and Gain

This passage delivers the sura's climactic imperative -- believe in God, His Messenger, and 'the Light' -- and names the Resurrection with the word that gives the chapter its title. On verse 8, the two published-Arabic authorities agree on the plain sense: al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi both read 'the Light which We sent down' as the Qurʾan, so named because its proofs guide like a light on the road. Al-Mizan concurs, adding that the shift to 'We sent down' converts the verse into God's own testimony that the Qurʾan is a heavenly Book. The narration-sources read otherwise: al-Qummi and al-Bahrani carry ʿAli ibn Ibrahim's gloss that the Light is the Commander of the Faithful, and Abu Khalid al-Kabuli's celebrated report from Imam al-Baqir that the Light is the Imams, whose light in the believers' hearts is 'brighter than the shining sun by day.' The Enlightening Commentary holds both together: the Light is the Qurʾan (comparing 14:1), and 'traditions reflect' that it also denotes the Infallible Imams as the Qurʾan's embodiments. Notably, al-Mizan himself acknowledges these walaya reports but explicitly classes them as baṭn (inner sense), 'by no means the interpretation' of the wording -- a rare in-source arbitration between the plain and esoteric readings, rendered here as attributed.

Verses 9-10 name the Day. Every source parses taghabun through the root ghabn -- being shortchanged in a bargain. Al-Tusi frames it as the disparity of taking a thing below its worth: the worldly took the fleeting for the lasting and were outdone. Al-Tabarsi personalises it -- the believer 'won' by trading this world for the next, the unbeliever 'lost' by the reverse -- and both he and al-Mizan relay the Prophetic hadith (via al-Bukhari from Abu Hurayra, which cross-checks) that everyone is shown both his forfeited seat in the Fire and his forfeited seat in Paradise, to deepen gratitude or regret. Al-Mizan surveys four readings of taghabun, culminating in the report-based one -- each soul has a dwelling in both abodes, and the saved inherit the damned's forfeited Paradise-dwellings -- which al-Bahrani anchors in Hafs ibn Ghiyath's report from Imam al-Sadiq glossing the Day-names (talaq, tanad, taghabun, hasra). The Enlightening Commentary broadens the term morally: on that Day the regrets of the disbelievers, the negligent, and even the believers 'who failed to do further good' are all made manifest, and the way out of loss is faith joined to righteous action -- to which verses 9 and 10 append the paired promise of eternal Gardens and the warning of the everlasting Fire.