Verses 42–46
These verses narrate the audience’s inquiry about the time of the resurrection, and respond by saying that no one knows about it except God. God has exclusively preserved this knowledge with Himself.
Commentary
يَسْئَلُونَكَ عَنِ السَّاعَةِ أَيَّانَ مُرْساها ٤٢
(79:42) They ask you concerning the Hour: when will it set in (mursāhā)?
Apparently, the present tense of the verb ask is meant to indicate their recurrent inquiry. Having heard about the resurrection, the polytheists used to refer to the Prophet repeatedly, and insist that he specifies its time. This is mentioned in several verses in the Qur’an. Mursá is a maṣdar (infinitive noun, gerund) which means “establishment, settlement.”
… when will it set in? This is an interpretation and exposition of their question. The meaning is: “These people who deny and deride the Hour inquire from you about the Hour: when will it settle? When shall it be established?” In other words: “When will the resurrection occur?”
فِيمَ أَنْتَ مِنْ ذِكْراها ٤٣
(79:43) Where (fī-ma) are you from (min) its mention (dhikrāhā)?
This is a rhetorical question which implies a negation. According to al-Rāghib, dhikrá means “frequent mention”; it is a more expressive and accentuated form of dhikr (remembrance, mention). The meaning is: “Where would you be by a frequent mention of the Hour?” That is, “What can you gain about its time of occurrence from frequently mentioning it?” where the preposition “from” is equivalent to “by means of.” In short: “You cannot learn about its time by mentioning it frequently.”
Another possible interpretation for dhikrá is “mindfulness about the reality of something.” Then the verse is saying rhetorically: “You are in no position to know about the reality of the Hour and its properties so that you may realize its time.” This meaning is more plausible than the last one.
Here are some other suggested views about the verse:
- The meaning is: “The mention of [the specific time of the] the Hour is not part of your mission. Rather, I have only appointed you as a warner for those who fear it ().”
- Fī-ma rejects their question. Then the next part of the verse is a new and independent sentence which justifies why their question is out of place. The meaning is: “What is the point of this question? What matters is that you are part of its remembrance.” That is, “You are part of what indicates and reminds the people of the Hour because your mission is so close to it, since you are the Seal of the Prophets. This much of knowledge [about the Hour] should suffice them [to take it seriously and prepare for it].” This is based on the Prophetic hadith: “My rising and the Hour’s are like these two” [pointing to his index and middle fingers]; “it [the Hour] is about to surpass me!”
- This verse is a continuation of the polytheists’ inquiry, addressed to the Prophet. The meaning is: “What do you know about the Hour and its time?” Alternatively: “What have you gained from frequently mentioning the Hour?”
Comment: The reader would agree that the context of the verse is not quite compatible with any of these views. Besides, all or most of them are contrived.
إِلى رَبِّكَ مُنْتَهاها ٤٤
(79:44) Its end traces to your Lord.
This verse explains and justifies the last verse: Where are you from its mention? (). The meaning is: “You do not know the time of the Hour because its end traces to your Lord. Its reality and properties—including its specific time—are only known to your Lord. Hence, the people should not ask you about its time. Nor is it within your capacity to respond to this question.”
It is also possible—and God knows best—that the verse is expressing another form of justification. The occurrence of the Hour is concomitant with the annihilation of all things, and the expiration of all apparent means and causes. The Hour means the realization and manifestation of the fact that all sovereignty and kingdom belong to Allah, the One, the All-Paramount (). This means that the Day of Resurrection can only be ascribed to God, without anything else whatsoever intermediating between Him and that day as a real causal link. This also includes time. Accordingly, it is not perceivable for that day to have a time in the real sense of it.
It is for this reason that the Qur’an defines that day only by saying that it occurs upon the extinction of the realm of this world, as reflected in the verse: And the Trumpet will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens will swoon and whoever is on the earth (). There are other similar verses which describe the destruction of the world in various expressions, such as the transformation of the earth and the heavens [], the collapse of the stars [], and so on. All other definitions of the Hour in the Qur’an are metaphorical and analogical, such as: The day they see it, it shall be as if they had not stayed [in the world] except for an evening or its forenoon (); The day when they see what they are promised, [it will be] as though they had remained only an hour of a day (); And on the day when the Hour sets in the guilty will swear that they had remained only for an hour (). The Qur’an then states the fact of the matter: But those who were given knowledge and faith will say, “Certainly you remained in Allah’s Book until the Day of Resurrection. This is the Day of Resurrection” (). This idea is also alluded to in several other places in the Qur’an, which talk about the Hour’s occurrence as being sudden and abrupt, such as: “It is heavy in the heavens and the earth. It will not overtake you but suddenly.” They ask you as if you were well-informed of it. Say, “Its knowledge is only with Allah, but most people do not know” ().
This is a profound point. A full appreciation and understanding of it requires ample reflection—to remove its apparent inconsistency with some other verses about the resurrection. The reader must particularly reflect on the verse: You were certainly oblivious of this. We have removed your veil from you, and so your sight is sharp today () [to untie this knot and fathom this meaning]. And God is to be sought for help.
إِنَّما أَنْتَ مُنْذِرُ مَنْ يَخْشاها ٤٥
(79:45) You are only a warner for those who fear it.
Here God is saying: “We have charged you only with the task of warning those who fear the Hour, not with the task of informing them about when it shall occur. Thus it is not up to you to answer them about its time when they ask you about it.” This means that the exclusive expression of the verse [reflected by the word innamā (only)] is used in a relative sense: the Prophet is called “only a warner” as a means of negating his knowledge about the Hour and his role of determining it for the inquirers.
Given the context, what is meant by “fear” is being apprehensive of the Hour when one is reminded about it. In other words, it means having the capacity, receptivity and propensity to fear it, even though the fear is not yet actualized before warning.
كَأَنَّهُمْ يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَها لَمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلاَّ عَشِيَّةً أَوْ ضُحاها ٤٦
(79:46) The day they see it, it shall be as if they had not stayed [in the world] except for an evening or its forenoon.
This verse presents a simile to depict the proximity of the Hour to their life in this world. It is so near to them that when they observe it, they will feel as though the time they spent in the earth after their life was only as much as an evening or the forenoon of that evening. That is, the distance between their life and the resurrection will be like the span of one evening or one forenoon compared to one day [of their life]. Based on this meaning, their “stay” in this verse means their stay between their life and the resurrection, which would be their stay in their graves. This is because the comparison is made with reference to their entire life in this world.
Some have said that their “stay” in this verse is the time span between their inquiry about the time of the Hour and its occurrence. The problem with this view is that they will make this statement after they are resurrected. What is applicable at that point is to compare their life in the hereafter with their previous state, which was their state of death, not their state of death and some part of their life which was between their inquiry and their death. Besides, this interpretation is discordant with the apparent meaning of other verses which talk about their stay before the resurrection, such as: He will say, “How many years did you stay in the earth?’’ (). Another suggested interpretation is that “stay” here means their stay in this world [that is, their entire life]. However, this is a weak interpretation.
Examining Narrations
- Tafsīr al-Qummī says: But as for him who feared his Lord’s station and forbade his soul from desire, his abode will indeed be paradise (): This is about a servant who comes across an act of disobedience of God that they are capable of committing, but refrains from it and prohibits themselves from it due to their fear of God and God’s prohibition. Their reward will be paradise. They ask you concerning the Hour: when will it set in (ayyāna mursāhā)? (): That is, [ayyāna mursāhā means] when will it occur? Then God replies, Its end traces to your Lord (7944), meaning that its knowledge rests with God [alone]. The day they see it, it shall be as if they had not stayed [in the world] except for an evening or its forenoon (): This means part of a day.
- Ibn ʿAbbās said: The polytheists in Mecca asked the Prophet pejoratively, “When will the Hour occur?” Thus these verses were revealed: They ask you concerning the Hour: when will it set in?… ().
- ʿĀʾishah said: The Messenger of God constantly inquired [God or Gabriel] about the Hour until it was revealed to him: Where are you from its mention? Its end traces to your Lord (). Then he no longer inquired about it.
Author’s comment: The verse’s theme and context is incongruent with it being a response to the Prophet’s question.
- ʿĀʾishah said: When the Bedouins went to the Prophet, they would ask him about the Hour. He would point to the youngest of them and say, “If he lives a century, your [awaited] Hour will befall you.”
Author’s comment: This would be a form of specifying its time, which the Prophet would not do by any means. It was revealed to him in many Qur’anic sūrahs, especially Meccan ones, that the knowledge of the Hour exclusively belongs to God, and no one knows it but Him. The Prophet was commanded to respond to anyone who asked him about its time by negating his knowledge of it.
Fī-ma (in what, where) is a subject, and the clause, are you is its predicate. The preposition min (from, of) signifies the origin of a movement (called ibtidāʾ al-ghāyah). (Auth.)
The preposition min (from) indicates the point from which a distance is measured. In this verse, it shows that there is a far distance between “where you are” and “the mention of the Hour.” (Ed.) ↩︎
This is the most apparent meaning of the verse, which is also confirmed by the context and other similar verses. In many Qur’anic verses, dhikrá means “reminder,” which makes is synonymous with dhikr. In this context, it would mean notifying the audience about the time of the Hour. Therefore, the verse is saying: “Where are you from making such a notification?” In other words: “There is a wide gap between your position—as a messenger who is only a warner ()—and informing the people about the specific time of the Hour.” (Ed.) ↩︎
In other words, it does not occur in time; it is not a temporal event. (Ed.) ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Mardawayh, via a weak chain of narration. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-Bazzār, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Ḥākim (who has authenticated it) and Ibn Mardawayh. This is also narrated from ʿUrwah in the same book, on the authority of several books, via an incomplete chain of narration (mursal). And a similar account is narrated from Ṭāriq b. Shihāb in the same book, on the authority of several books. ↩︎
The above narration can also be read in passive voice: “The Messenger of God was constantly inquired about… Then he was no longer inquired about it.” This would be congruent with the verse. The author’s comment is applicable to the version narrated from Ṭāriq b. Shihāb. (Ed.) ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of Ibn Mardawayh. ↩︎