An-Nazi'at, "Those Who Extract," is the seventy-ninth surah — 46 verses revealed in Mecca.1 It opens with oaths: "By those [angels] who extract with violence and [by] those who remove with ease and [by] those who glide [as if] swimming and those who race each other in a race and those who arrange [each] matter."
What it is about
The oaths lead to the Day of Resurrection, when "hearts, that Day, will tremble, their eyes humbled." The deniers ask, "Will we indeed be returned to [our] former state [of life]? Even if we should be decayed bones?" — but "it will be but one shout, and suddenly they will be [alert] upon the earth's surface."2
The surah then tells of Moses, called "in the sacred valley of Tuwa" and sent to Pharaoh with a gentle invitation: "Would you [be willing to] purify yourself and let me guide you to your Lord so you would fear [Him]?" Pharaoh "denied and disobeyed," gathered his people and declared, "I am your most exalted lord." God seized him, and "indeed in that is a lesson [i.e., warning] for whoever would fear [Allah]."3
Turning to the listener, it asks: "Are you a more difficult creation or is the heaven? He [i.e., Allah] constructed it." God raised the sky, darkened its night, spread the earth, brought out its water and pasture and set the mountains firm "as enjoyment [i.e., provision] for you and your grazing livestock."4
When "the greatest Overwhelming Calamity" comes, people divide in two. "As for he who transgressed and preferred the life of the world, then indeed, Hellfire will be [his] refuge. But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from [unlawful] inclination, then indeed, Paradise will be [his] refuge." As for when the Hour will come, "to your Lord is its finality"; the Prophet ﷺ is "only a warner."5
Why it matters
An-Nazi'at puts the choice of a lifetime into two verses: to prefer this world, or to fear standing before God and hold the self back from its desires. Its Pharaoh — a ruler who claimed to be the highest lord — stands for every arrogance that refuses accountability, and its reminder that the world will seem to have lasted only "an afternoon or a morning" puts that arrogance in proportion. To read An-Nazi'at in Arabic with translations and recitation, open it on Quran.com.