Meccan, and its verses are 112 [revealed after Surah Ibrahim]. 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.'

This lam: it is not free from being a connection to 'approach,' or an affirmation of the addition of the reckoning to them, like your saying: 'The departure of the tribe has drawn near.' The original is: 'The departure of the tribe has drawn near,' then 'The departure has drawn near for the tribe,' then 'Their departure has drawn near for the tribe.' And similar to this is what Sibawayh mentioned in 'the chapter on what is doubled in the settled for affirmation': 'You have Zaid who is eager for you.' And 'In you is Zaid who is desirous of you.' And from it is their saying: 'I do not care for you': because the lam is an affirmation of the meaning of the addition. This aspect is stranger than the first. The intended meaning is the approach of the Hour. And when the Hour approaches, what is in it of reckoning, reward, punishment, and other matters has approached. Similar to this is: 'And the true promise has approached.'

If you say: How is it described as approaching when more than five hundred years have passed since this saying?

I say: It is near with Allah, and the evidence for it is His saying, exalted is He: 'And they hasten you with the punishment, and Allah will not fail in His promise. And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of what you count.' And because everything that is coming—even if the times of its reception and anticipation are long—is near. The distant is only that which has occurred and passed away. And because what remains in the world is shorter and less than what has preceded it, as evidenced by the emergence of the Seal of the Prophets whose mission was promised to occur at the end of time. And he, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'I was sent at the breath of the Hour.' [This saying is narrated by Al-Bazzar with a good chain, from the hadith of Abu Jubayr ibn Al-Dahhak Al-Ansari, and Al-Hassan ibn Sufyan narrated it. And through him, Abu Nu'aym in Al-Hilya. There are narrations from Al-Mustawrid ibn Shaddad that are raised: 'I was sent at the very hour—this hadith' narrated by Al-Tirmidhi. And in the sermon of some of the early ones: 'The world has passed by, and nothing remains except a little like the dregs of a vessel.' This is Abdullah ibn Ghazwan. Muslim narrated it from his lengthy hadith.] 'I was sent at the breath of the Hour.' [The saying 'I was sent at the breath of the Hour' in the authentic narrations means 'the breath of the wind' or it refers to when it begins to come gently before it intensifies. And from it is the hadith: 'I was sent at the breath of the Hour,' meaning when it began and its beginnings approached. And the breeze is also the plural of 'nasim,' which means the soul.]

And in the sermon of some of the early ones: 'The world has passed by, and nothing remains except a little like the dregs of a vessel.' And if the remainder of a thing, even if it is abundant in itself, is little compared to most of it, it is fitting to be described as little and short in reach. And from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, that the intended meaning of 'people' is the polytheists. And this is from the use of the name of the genus for some of it due to the existing evidence, which is what follows from the attributes of the polytheists. He described them as heedless with disregard, meaning: they are heedless of their reckoning, negligent, not reflecting on their outcome, nor realizing what their end will return to, while their minds necessitate that there must be a reward for the good-doer and the wrongdoer. And when the stick is struck for them and they are alerted from the state of heedlessness and become aware of it by what is recited to them from the verses and warnings, they turn away and cover their ears and flee.