Commentary
His saying, Exalted and Majestic is He: "And do not think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them for a Day when the eyes will stare in horror." "Rushing forward, their heads raised high, their gaze will not return to them, and their hearts are empty." "And warn the people of a Day when the punishment will come to them, and the wrongdoers will say, 'Our Lord, delay us to a near term so we may respond to Your call and follow the messengers.' Did you not swear before that you would have no end?"
This verse in its entirety contains a warning for the wrongdoers and consolation for the oppressed. The address by His saying: "Do not think" is directed to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and the intended prohibition is for others who are appropriate to think such a thing. Talhah ibn Musarif read: "And do not think that Allah is unaware" by dropping the noon. Likewise, it is read: "So do not think that Allah will break His promise." Abu Haywah, Abdul Rahman, Al-Hasan, and Al-A'raj read: "We delay them" with the noon of greatness, while the majority read: "He delays them" with the ya, meaning Allah, the Exalted. The meaning of "will stare" is that they will fix their gaze in horror, and due to the intensity of that, it is like the gaze of a dying person.
And "rushing forward" means hurrying in their walk, as said by Ibn Jubair and Qatadah. This is with humility and submission, like the hurriedness of a frightened captive and the like. This is the most reliable of the statements. The camels can also be described as rushing forward in the sense of hurrying, and their hurriedness is rarely except due to the fear of the whip and such. From this is the saying of the poet:
And with a rushing one, a swift one, as if its reins On the head of a trunk from the first of the trimmed.
And from this is the saying of Imran ibn Hattan:
When he calls us, we rush to his call, A caller who hears, so gather us and drive us.
And from this is the saying of Ibn Mufarreq:
In Dijlah is their dwelling, and indeed, they showed them, In Dijlah, rushing forward to listen.
And from this is the saying of another:
With a rushing messenger, as if his braid Is tied with a rope from a restrained one.
Ibn Abbas and Abu Dhuhah said: Rushing forward means intense gazing without blinking. Ibn Zayd said: The one who does not raise his head. Abu Ubaidah said: Rushing forward can be for both meanings: hurrying and maintaining the gaze.
And "the one who raises his head" is the one who lifts his head forward with his face towards something. From this is the saying of the poet:
They hasten to the bushes with raised heads, Their jaws like the snapping of the wild.
He describes the camels as raising their heads when grazing at the tops of the trees. Al-Hasan said in the interpretation of this verse: The faces of the people on the Day of Resurrection will be towards the sky; no one will look at another. Al-Mubarrid mentioned in what has been reported that raising the head is found in the speech of the Arabs meaning lowering the head in humiliation, and the first is more famous.
And His saying: "Their gaze will not return to them" means they will not blink due to fear, panic, and the intensity of the situation.
And His saying: ﴿And their hearts are empty﴾ is a pure analogy, for they are not truly empty. The aspect of the analogy may be that it refers to the emptiness of their hearts from goodness, hope, and desire for mercy. Thus, they are like air in their emptiness from things and their voidness. It may also refer to the turmoil of their hearts and their agitation in their chests. They come and go and reach - as has been narrated - their throats. In this, they are like air, which is always in turmoil.
Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
And based on these two aspects, the heart of the coward and the heart of the man who is troubled in his affairs is likened to air. From this is the saying of the poet:
Do not be from the companions of every weakling, Like air that is hollow inside.
And from this is the saying of Hassan:
Let me not inform Abu Sufyan about me, For you are hollow and empty air.
And from this is the saying of Zuhair:
As if the saddle on him is above a weakling, From the shadows, its hollow is air.
The meaning is that he is extremely light in his fleeing.
And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And warn the people﴾. The intended meaning of the day is the Day of Resurrection. Its being in the accusative is because it is an object of "
, " and it cannot be an adverbial because the Resurrection is not a place of warning. And His saying: "
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