Az-Zalzalah الزلزلة
The Earthquake
Az-Zalzalah describes the earth on the Day of Judgement as shaking with a final violence, throwing out everything buried within it, while a bewildered humanity asks what is happening to it — and the earth itself answers, speaking by God's command, testifying to everything that happened on its surface. The surah's closing two verses are its most quoted: whoever has done an atom's weight of good will see it, and whoever has done an atom's weight of evil will see that — a statement, without exception or minimum threshold, that no act is too small to be weighed. Despite being one of the Quran's shortest surahs, a hadith records the Prophet ﷺ describing it as equal to a quarter of the Quran in weight, and it's traditionally recited for the density of its single, complete argument: that the smallest good and the smallest wrong both register, with nothing lost in between.
إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا
When the earth is shaken violently in its [last] quaking,
وَأَخْرَجَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَا
when the earth throws out its burdens,
وَقَالَ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ مَا لَهَا
when man cries, ‘What is happening to it?’;
يَوْمَئِذٍ تُحَدِّثُ أَخْبَارَهَا
on that Day, it will tell all
بِأَنَّ رَبَّكَ أَوْحَىٰ لَهَا
because your Lord will inspire it [to do so].
يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصْدُرُ ٱلنَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًا لِّيُرَوْا۟ أَعْمَـٰلَهُمْ
On that Day, people will come forward in separate groups to be shown their deeds:
فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُۥ
whoever has done an atom’s-weight of good will see it,
وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُۥ
but whoever has done an atom’s-weight of evil will see that.
Arabic text and translation (M.A.S. Abdel Haleem) via the Quran.Foundation API.
Frequently asked
Eight verses.
Medinan, revealed in Madinah.
"The earthquake" — describing the earth's violent shaking on the Day of Judgement.
Verses 7–8 state that whoever does an atom's weight of good or evil will see it — no deed, however small, goes unweighed.