Surah al-Qiyaamah (The Standing) is another relatively short surah whose focus is on the inevitability of resurrection and the Day of Standing (i.e., the Day of Judgment).
It appears that the surah may be organized in a ring structure as follows:
Connections
Upon further analysis, the surah appears to share many parallels when one examines the contents of each section. Click to zoom in on the image.
Section A/A’
The surah begins and ends with reference to the disbelievers attitude towards being resurrected. Allah ﷻ goes into details to demonstrate His creative ability arguing that He has already created us before, so why should it be so tough to do it again? In both passages, Allah ﷻ asks “Does man think…”. The first time, He addresses their denial of resurrection and the second time He asks if the disbelievers think they’ll be left alone after death.
Section B/B’
Building upon His detailed description of being resurrected, Allah ﷻ paints a vivid picture of the trials of the Day of Judgment. In [B], He describes the vision as “dazzled”, the moon as “darkened” and the sun and the moon as “joined” together. Allah ﷻ then gives three further illustrations of Judgment Day in [B’] when He says the faces will be “radiant”, “looking” at their Master, while other faces will be “contorted".
Both passages share the usage of the emphatic “No!” that works to answer all the doubts the disbelievers bring forward about the reality of Judgment Day. Finally, both sections similarly state, “to your Lord, that Day, will be” the place of permanence and the procession.
Section C/C’
Finally, the surah is centered on the disapproval of rushing things for this world as opposed to the Afterlife. Allah ﷻ tells the Messenger ﷺ to not rush in his recitation of the Quran. The Messenger ﷺ is rushing it because he doesn’t want to forget it and so that he may convey the message faster as he learns more and more about the impending Judgment. Allah ﷻ assures him that the message is safe and goes on to reprimand the disbelievers who rush towards the things of this world while leaving off works for the Afterlife.
Update - Symmetry in Sounds
It’s recently been brought to our attention that the surah is perfectly divided into two precisely equal halves (Ayaat 1-19 and 20-40 or Sections [A]-[C] and [A’]-[C’]). Each half consists of 66 metrical feet, 119 long syllables, and 108 short syllables, with 68 of the syllables of each half being accented.
وَاللّهُ أَعلَم - And Allah knows best
Sources
Personal notes and research
Update is from: Robinson, “The Qur’ān as the Word of God,” 50 citing Crapon De Caprona, Le Coran: Aux Sources De La Parole Oraculaire, 311-341
Surah al-Qiyaamah
Regarding
"It’s recently been brought to our attention that the surah is perfectly divided into two precisely equal halves (Ayaat 1-19 and 20-40 or Sections [A]-[C] and [A’]-[C’]). Each half consists of 66 metrical feet, 119 long syllables, and 108 short syllables, with 68 of the syllables of each half being accented."
It would be wonderful if the above can be presented in a schematic with some color coding or underlining or some graphical way to show the above symmetry of sound.
If you can please do that if possible, it would be of great benefit inshallah.