Question:
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
In Sūrah Al-Zilzāl, verse 1:
(إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا)
“When the earth is shaken with its [final] earthquake,”
we observe that the فاعل (subject) is not explicitly mentioned. While it is understood that the doer is Allah, is there a rhetorical reason for this omission?
Answer:
In Arabic rhetoric (balāghah), there is an entire field dedicated to the eloquence of omission, where certain words are deliberately left out for rhetorical and pragmatic purposes. In this verse, some Qur’anic commentators explain that the omission of the subject highlights the effortless power of Allah. Despite the enormity of the event—the earth being violently shaken—it is carried out with such ease and certainty that there’s no need to even name the doer. The implied subject can only be Allah, the One with absolute power.
This rhetorical device is similar to how a confident person might say, “It will be done,” without mentioning who will do it—implying that the task is so simple for them that naming the doer is unnecessary.
وكان البناء للمفعول يدل على سهولة الفعل ويسره. (تفسير البقاعي ٥٠٤/٨)
Allah knows best.
Abbas Afzal
10 Muharram / 6 July 2025
