His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿Indeed, the Day of Separation was a fixed time﴾ ﴿The Day the Horn is blown, and you will come in droves﴾ ﴿And the heaven will be opened, and it will be gates﴾ ﴿And the mountains will be set in motion, and they will be like mirage﴾ ﴿Indeed, Hell was a place of ambush﴾ ﴿For the transgressors, a return﴾ ﴿Abiding therein for ages﴾

(p-516) "The Day of Separation" is the Day of Resurrection; because Allah, exalted and majestic is He, will separate between the believers and the disbelievers, and between the truth and falsehood. And "the fixed time" is a noun derived from time, like an appointment derived from a promise. And His saying, exalted is He: "The Day the Horn is blown" is a substitute for the first "Day." And "the Horn" is the trumpet that is blown to resurrect the people. This is the saying of the majority. It is possible that in this context, "the Horns" refers to the plural of "Horn," meaning: the Day Allah, exalted and majestic is He, returns the souls to the bodies. This is the saying of some of them regarding "the Horns" and it was permitted by Abu Hatim. The first is more well-known, and the reports have agreed upon it, and it is evident in the Book of Allah, exalted is He, in His saying: ﴿Then it will be blown into it again﴾ [Az-Zumar: 68]. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, read "the Horns" with a fatḥah on the waw.

And "the droves" are groups that follow one another, and one of them is called a "drove."

Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Abu Amr, Ibn Amir, Abu Ja'far, Shaiba, and Al-Hasan read: "And it was opened," with the emphasis on the ta for exaggeration. And Asim, Hamza, and Al-Kisai read: "And it was opened" without emphasis. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And it will be gates﴾ means that it will split and crack until there are openings like gates in the walls. Others said - as reported by Makki ibn Abi Talib - that the gates here are the splits of wood that are made into doors for the openings of the walls, meaning that the heaven will be cut into small pieces until it becomes like the boards of doors. The first statement is better. Some of the scholars said: gates will open in the heaven for the angels from where they descend and ascend. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And it will be like mirage﴾ is an expression of its vanishing and disappearance after being dust scattered, and He did not mean that the mountains will return to resemble water from a distance to the observer.

And "a place of ambush" is a place of surveillance, and from it is His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Indeed, your Lord is surely watching﴾ [Al-Fajr: 14]. It has been narrated from Al-Hasan ibn Abi Al-Hasan that he said: No one will enter Paradise until he passes by Hell. So whoever has reasons for salvation will be saved, otherwise he will perish. And Qatadah said: You should know that there is no way to Paradise until Hell is cut off. And in the authentic hadith: "Indeed, the bridge is a bridge that is set over the edge of Hell, then people will pass over it, some will be saved and some will be thrown down." And some of the interpreters said: "a place of ambush" is a noun meaning (p-517) a watcher. And Abu Ma'mar Al-Munqiri read: "Indeed, Hell" with a fatḥah on the alif, while the majority read it with a kasrah. And "the transgressors" are the disbelievers, and "the return" is the place of return, and "the ages" is the plural of "age" with a dammah on the ha and a fatḥah on the qaf, and "ages" with a kasrah on the ha, and "age" with a dammah on the qaf. It is the plural of "age." From it is the saying of Mutammim:

؎ And we were like two friends, a long age of time, until it was said: They will not break apart.

And it is the long duration of time that is unlimited. It is also said regarding the year: it is a period. Bishr ibn Ka'b said: Its limit, according to what has been mentioned in the revealed books, is three hundred years. Hilal al-Hijri said: eighty years. They both said: In each year, three hundred and sixty days. Ibn Abbas and Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, said: eighty thousand years. Al-Hasan said: seventy thousand years. It was also said: fifty thousand years. Abu Umamah reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: 'Indeed, it is thirty thousand years.' And many people have spoken about this. What is necessary is that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, informed about the disbelievers that they will remain for periods, whenever one period passes, another comes, without an end. Al-Hasan said: It has no count except for eternity in the Fire. Among the people are those who thought that the mention of the periods indicates that the duration of punishment is limited and will come to an end. They sought interpretation for that. Muqatil ibn Hayyan said: The period is seventeen thousand years, and it is abrogated by His saying, glorified and exalted is He: 'So taste, for We will not increase you except in punishment' [An-Naba: 30]. And we have mentioned the invalidity of this statement. Others said: The ones described as remaining for periods are the sinners among the believers. And this is also weak, as what follows in the surah indicates against it. Others said: The meaning is: remaining in it for periods without tasting any coolness or drink. In this state, they will remain for periods, then the punishment will remain eternally while they drink the drinks of Hellfire.

The majority read 'remaining', while Hamzah alone, and Ibn Mas'ud, and Alqamah, and Ibn Wathab, and Amr ibn Maymun, and Amr ibn Shurahbil read 'remaining' in the plural form of 'remaining', and it is an objectionable reading, because a verb is only for what has become a creation, like 'fear' and 'panic'. And it has come as an exception in what is not a creation. Al-Tabari and others quoted in this regard a verse from Labid:

Or a worker who has made a support of a generous one, with its paths, a lament for him and wounds.

The objector in the reading said: There is no proof in this verse because 'a work' has become like a creation, which he has persistently worked with until it is named by it at a time when he does not work with it, as you say 'a writer' for one who has a craft even if he does not write most of the time. The one who argues for it said: The similarity of 'remaining' to its permanence is due to the fact that remaining has become part of its nature.