That is, “What is this earthquake that has struck it?” Because people will emerge looking—as Allah Most High says—“drunk” [al-Hajj: 2], they will ask, “What has happened to it? What is the matter with it?” because of the sheer terror.
“On that Day” means on the day when it is shaken. “It will recount its news” means that it will report the good and evil that people committed upon it. It is authentically established from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—that when the caller to prayer makes the call, no tree, clod of dried earth, stone, or anything else hears his voice without bearing witness for him on the Day of Resurrection (1). Thus, the earth will testify to the good and evil committed upon it. This testimony serves to demonstrate Allah’s justice—Mighty and Majestic is He—and that He does not hold people accountable for anything but what they themselves have done. Allah Most High, of course, encompasses all things, and it would suffice for Him—Majestic and Exalted is He—to tell His servants, “You did such-and-such, and you did such-and-such.”
Rather, this testimony is to establish justice and leave the offender no room for denial, for the evildoers will deny that they were polytheists. Allah Most High says, “Then their only plea will be, ‘By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists’” [al-An'ām: 23]. When they see that the people of monotheism have escaped the punishment and been saved from it, they will deny their polytheism in the hope that they too might be saved. Their mouths, however, will be sealed; their hands will speak, and their feet, skins, and tongues will all testify against them concerning what they did. They will then be unable to persist in their denial and will instead admit and confess, but remorse will be of no avail at that time.
The words “On that Day it will recount its news” are the answer to the conditional clause in the words of Allah Most High: “When the earth is shaken with its final earthquake, and the earth casts out its burdens, and man asks, ‘What is the matter with it?’”
His words, “Because your Lord will have inspired it,” mean because Allah will have inspired it—that is, permitted it to recount its news. He—Glorified and Exalted is He—has power over all things. Whenever He commands something, it must inevitably come to pass. Allah addresses inanimate matter, and it speaks, as Allah Most High says, “Then He turned to heaven while it was smoke