An-Nazi'at (Pulling Forth) النَّازِعَات

Overview

An-Nāziʿāt (Arabic: النَّازِعَات) is the opening oath of Surah 79 of the Quran (which takes its name from this very word). The verse reads: "By those who extract violently" (Surah An-Nazi'at 79:1). Classical commentators (al-Ṭabari, Ibn Kathir, al-Qurṭubi) record several interpretations:

1. Angels who extract the souls of disbelievers "violently" (the dominant view) — paired with An-Nāshiṭāt (those who remove with ease, 79:2), interpreted as the angels who take the souls of believers gently.
2. The stars in their orbits, which "pull" toward setting.
3. Bows that are drawn before release.
4. Strivers in worship who pull their souls from worldly attachment.

The first view — angels of death extracting souls — is the classical mainstream and is consistent with the surah's eschatological theme.

The five opening oaths of Surah 79

Surah 79:1–5 opens with five oaths in succession:

1. An-Nāziʿāt — those who extract violently
2. An-Nāshiṭāt — those who release gently
3. As-Sābiḥāt — those who glide (or swim)
4. As-Sābiqāt — those who race forward
5. Al-Mudabbirāt — those who arrange affairs

The classical interpretation reads all five as angels in their various roles around death, judgement, and the management of cosmic affairs. The oaths are followed by Surah 79:6: "On the Day the [first] blast will convulse all things, followed by the second" — connecting the angelic agencies of life-to-death to the Trumpet and resurrection.

Quranic references

• Surah An-Nazi'at 79:1–5 — the five oaths.
• Surah As-Sajdah 32:11 — "Say: The angel of death will take you, who has been entrusted with you."
• Surah Muhammad 47:27 — "Then how [will it be] when the angels take them in death, striking their faces and their backs?"
• Surah Al-Anʿam 6:93 — "And if you could see when the wrongdoers are in the agonies of death and the angels are stretching out their hands."

Hadith

Al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib reported the Prophet ﷺ described the death of the believer: "The angels of mercy come down to him from heaven, faces white like the sun, with a shroud and embalmment from Paradise. They sit at arm's length around him; the angel of death comes and sits at his head and says: O pure soul, come out to forgiveness from Allah and pleasure. The soul flows out as easily as water flows from a flask." Conversely, the disbeliever's soul is described as being extracted with great violence. — Sunan Abi Dawud 4753 (graded Sahih by al-Albani); Musnad Aḥmad 18557

Significance

The opening of Surah 79, with its sequence of cosmic-angelic oaths, frames the surah's account of the Exodus of Musa and Pharaoh, and concludes with the warning that the Hour comes "on a day when no soul will avail another". The angels who extract — gently or violently — are the immediate cause of the transition from this life to the Barzakh.

See also

• An-Nashitat
• As-Sabihat
• As-Sabiqat
• Al-Mudabbirat
• Angel of Death
• Angels
• Death

References

1. The Quran (Sahih International translation): Surahs Al-Anʿam 6:93; As-Sajdah 32:11; Muhammad 47:27; An-Nazi'at 79:1–5.
2. Sunan Abi Dawud 4753, graded Sahih by al-Albani.
3. Ibn Kathir, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, opening of Surah An-Nazi'at.
4. al-Ṭabari, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, on the same verses.