When that in the chests is taken out besides everything
The root ḥāʾ ṣād lām was used for silver that was extracted from mountains and separated while everything else was wasted away. The ḥāṣil (from the same root) of something referred to what remained behind of it while everything else went away.106 This is an imagery. Think of a purse containing a lot of stuff but you are looking for one small pearl. You would put your hand inside it, and then throw all other things out until you find the treasure. Just so, will the graves be opened up, and the toppler throw everything out in search of what lies hidden inside the chests. People will be resurrected physically but their hearts, the intentions, the feelings, that are the seed of every action that they do, will be taken out. The very first cause of cowardice is that feeling of fear inside the chest. If someone is charging at an enemy and midway cowers and runs away, that cowardice starts from that feeling of fear and “what if” inside his chest. His body then simply follows along and obeys it. What Allah is saying is that I will go to the very depths of your being, and extract your feelings themselves. I will not simply judge you as being a kanūd to Me, but I will lay down before you, your very feelings that caused you to become one.
How is this connected to what has come before?
The horses raided and penetrated the enemy, reaching their very center - their heart. Their goal was to reach the centre of the enemy and they were successful. On the last day, Allah too will carry out a raid and penetrate our graves, and reach the very centre and essence of our being- our hearts.
Just as the horses openly announced their incoming charge to their enemy by forming dust clouds, Allah is also announcing beforehand of the raid that He will carry out. He will conquer you and examine you to your very breasts - to the very core of your beings. His raid will be fierce and relentless, like that of the horses. This is the omitted object of the verb “know” in the previous verse. Does he not know that Allah too will carry out a raid like those horses but this time man himself will be the object of this raid?
When that in the chests is taken out besides everything
The root ḥāʾ ṣād lām was used for silver that was extracted from mountains and separated while everything else was wasted away. The ḥāṣil (from the same root) of something referred to what remained behind of it while everything else went away.106 This is an imagery. Think of a purse containing a lot of stuff but you are looking for one small pearl. You would put your hand inside it, and then throw all other things out until you find the treasure. Just so, will the graves be opened up, and the toppler throw everything out in search of what lies hidden inside the chests. People will be resurrected physically but their hearts, the intentions, the feelings, that are the seed of every action that they do, will be taken out. The very first cause of cowardice is that feeling of fear inside the chest. If someone is charging at an enemy and midway cowers and runs away, that cowardice starts from that feeling of fear and “what if” inside his chest. His body then simply follows along and obeys it. What Allah is saying is that I will go to the very depths of your being, and extract your feelings themselves. I will not simply judge you as being a kanūd to Me, but I will lay down before you, your very feelings that caused you to become one.
How is this connected to what has come before?
The horses raided and penetrated the enemy, reaching their very center - their heart. Their goal was to reach the centre of the enemy and they were successful. On the last day, Allah too will carry out a raid and penetrate our graves, and reach the very centre and essence of our being- our hearts.
Just as the horses openly announced their incoming charge to their enemy by forming dust clouds, Allah is also announcing beforehand of the raid that He will carry out. He will conquer you and examine you to your very breasts - to the very core of your beings. His raid will be fierce and relentless, like that of the horses. This is the omitted object of the verb “know” in the previous verse. Does he not know that Allah too will carry out a raid like those horses but this time man himself will be the object of this raid?
Inside the chests, lie the hearts. And so;
106 Al-Muʿjam al-Ishtiqāqī al-Muʾaṣṣal li-Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, vol. 1, p. 446