His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "So as for he who transgressed and preferred the worldly life, then indeed, Hellfire is the abode. And as for he who feared the position of his Lord and restrained the soul from desire, then indeed, Paradise is the abode. They ask you about the Hour, when is its arrival? In what are you that you mention it? To your Lord is its finality. You are only a warner for whoever fears it. The day they see it, it will be as if they had not remained except for an evening or its morning."

"Transgressed" means: exceeded the limits that a person should stand at. "Preferred the worldly life" over the Hereafter due to his denial of the Hereafter. "Abode" is the place where a person resides and remains. And "the position of his Lord" is the Day of Resurrection, and what is meant is the position before his Lord. He attributed the position to Allah, the Most High, in that it is before Him, and in this is a magnification of the position and a glorification of its terror and its significance to the souls. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The meaning is: he feared Him at the time of disobedience and refrained from it. And "desire" is the passions of the soul and what follows them. Its most common usage is in the unrestricted sense. Sahl al-Tustari said: No one is safe from desire except the prophets, peace be upon them, and some of the truthful ones. Some of the wise said: If you want the truth, look at your desire and oppose it. And Fadl ibn Iyad said: The best of deeds is opposing desire.

And His saying, exalted is He: "They ask you about the Hour"... This verse was revealed because the Quraysh were insistent in asking about the time of the Hour, which the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, would inform them about and threaten them regarding, and he would frequently mention it. "When is its arrival?" means: When will it be established and the time of its arrival? That is, its establishment, as if it is something that moves to a certain point and then stops, like a ship that docks. Abu Abdur-Rahman al-Sulami read: "When is" with a kasrah on the alif.

Then Allah, exalted is He, said to His Prophet, peace be upon him - in a manner of stopping: "In what are you that you mention it?" That is: you are not in anything regarding its specification and time. "You are only a warner," and Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: "The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, would frequently ask about the Hour, and when this verse was revealed, he ceased."

Abu Ja'far, Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, Abu Amr read differently - and Ibn Muhaysin, al-A'raj, Talhah, and Isa: "A warner" with the tanween of "a warner". The majority of the reciters read: "A warner for whoever fears it" by attributing "a warner" to "whoever".

Then Allah, exalted is He, brought the matter of the Hour closer by informing that when a person sees it, he will not have remained except for an evening of a day or its morning. He added "the morning" to "the evening" in that they are two ends of the day, and he began by mentioning one of them and added the other to it for brevity and conciseness.

The interpretation of Surah [An-Nazi'at] is complete, and all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.