The Reckoning (al-Ḥisāb) حِسَابًا

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Endorsed by the Quranicpedia Review Board · June 2026

Al-Ḥisāb is the accounting of every deed on the Day of Resurrection. Sūrah An-Naba diagnoses the deniers as a people who “did not expect any reckoning” (78:27), having no hope or fear of being called to account. The Qur'an presents this reckoning as certain, exact, and perfectly just — its recompense suiting the deeds (78:26), weighed on scales that wrong no one (21:47).

Overview

After rehearsing its signs of creation and naming the Day of Decision, Sūrah An-Naba turns to the inner reason the deniers rejected the great news: “Indeed, they were a people who did not expect any reckoning” (78:27). The word here is حِسَابًا (ḥisāban) — an account, a reckoning. Al-Ḥisāb is the Day on which God brings every deed to account, weighing it on scales that wrong no one (21:47) and recompensing each soul exactly for what it earned (40:17). The sūrah frames the deniers’ whole posture as the consequence of not expecting this accounting; its recompense is one “to suit” the deeds (78:26).

Etymology and meaning

The root ح س ب (ḥ-s-b) carries the sense of to count, to calculate, to reckon up. From it comes ḥisāb, an account or tally, and ḥāsib, a reckoner — as in God’s sufficiency: “sufficient are We as accountants” (حَاسِبِينَ, 21:47). The same root yields ḥasīb, the one who keeps perfect count. So al-ḥisāb is not a vague verdict but a precise calculation — every act numbered, nothing omitted and nothing added — which is why the Qur'an can speak of God as “swift in account” (سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ, 40:17): the tally is exhaustive yet instantaneous.

Qur'anic references

78:27 — “Indeed, they were a people who did not expect any reckoning”
78:26 — “A recompense to suit” — the reckoning’s outcome corresponds exactly to the deeds
21:47 — “We place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection… and sufficient are We as accountants”
88:26 — “Then indeed, upon Us is their account”
40:17 — “This Day every soul will be recompensed for what it earned. No injustice today… swift in account”
84:7–8 — “As for he who is given his record in his right hand, he will be judged with an easy reckoning”
84:10–12 — “But he who is given his record behind his back will cry out for destruction and enter a Blaze”

Significance

In Sūrah An-Naba the reckoning is the hinge of the moral argument. The deniers do not merely doubt a future event; they “did not expect any reckoning” (78:27), and from that absence of expectation the next verse traces their rejection of God’s signs “with emphatic denial” (78:28). The logic is causal: belief in a final accounting is what gives weight to right and wrong, so abandoning it empties conduct of consequence. Against this the sūrah sets a recompense “to suit” (78:26) — jazāʾan wifāqan, a requital that precisely matches the deeds — underscoring that the recompense of the transgressors is exact justice, not excess.

The wider Qur'an fills out the same picture. The scales of 21:47 register even “the weight of a mustard seed,” so “no soul will be treated unjustly at all.” The closing oath of Sūrah Al-Ghashiyah places the entire process in God’s own hands — “to Us is their return; then upon Us is their account” (88:25–26). And the reckoning divides humanity by how their record of deeds is received: an “easy reckoning” for the one given his book in his right hand (84:7–8), and ruin for the one given it behind his back (84:10–12). The certainty announced for the True Day is therefore inseparable from the certainty of being called to account.

References