What is “the great news” in Surah An-Naba?

Answer

In Surah An-Naba, “the great news” (al-nabaʾ al-ʿaẓīm) is the Resurrection and the Day of Judgement — the matter the people of Makkah were disputing. The sūrah opens by noting their questioning (78:1), names the subject as “the great news” (78:2), and then points to signs in creation — the earth made a resting place, the mountains as pegs, sleep and night and day, the seven heavens and the blazing sun, and rain reviving the dead earth — as evidence that the One who made and ordered the world can raise the dead. Ibn Kathīr and al-Saʿdī explain it is called “great” because of the enormity of what it announces and the gravity of accepting or denying it; some early authorities also understood it to include the Qurʾān itself, which proclaims that Day.