Isma'il ibn Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani informed us; Abd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad al-Farisi informed us; Muhammad ibn Isa al-Juludi informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan informed us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj informed us; Abu Khaythamah Zuhayr ibn Harb informed us; Sufyan ibn Uyaynah informed us, from Furat al-Qazzaz, from Abu al-Tufayl, from Hudhayfah ibn Usayd al-Ghifari, who said: The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came upon us while we were discussing matters, and he asked, “What are you discussing?” They replied, “We are discussing the Hour.” He said: “It will not come to pass until you see ten signs before it.” He then mentioned the smoke, the Dajjal, the Beast, the sun’s rising from the west, the descent of Jesus son of Mary, Gog and Magog, and three landfalls: one in the west, one in the east, and one in the Arabian Peninsula. The last of these will be a fire that emerges from Yemen and drives the people to their place of gathering.” (1)

“And the true promise has drawn near; then behold, the eyes of those who disbelieve will stare: ‘Woe to us! We were heedless of this; rather, we were wrongdoers.’” (97)

His saying, Exalted is He, “And the true promise has drawn near,” means the Resurrection. Al-Farra and a group of scholars said: the initial conjunction is superfluous in His saying, “And the true promise has drawn near.” Its meaning is: Until Gog and Magog are unleashed, the true promise draws near—just as Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Then, when they had both submitted and he had laid him face down upon his forehead, We called out to him” (al-Saffat: 103), meaning: “We called out to him.”

Evidence for this is what was narrated from Hudhayfah, who said: “If a man acquired a foal after Gog and Magog had emerged, he would not ride it before the Hour came.” (3)

Others said that it is not permissible to omit the conjunction. They held that the response to “Until, when Gog and Magog are unleashed” occurs in the words, “Woe to us!” Thus, the meaning of the verse is: Until Gog and Magog are unleashed and the true promise has drawn near, they will say: “Woe to us! We were heedless of this.”

Regarding His saying, “Then behold, the eyes of those who disbelieve will stare,” there are three possible interpretations of “behold.”

The first is that it stands for “the eyes”; then the noun “the eyes” is stated explicitly for clarification. Its meaning is: Then ⦗22/b⦘ the eyes—the eyes of those who disbelieve—will stare.

The second is that it is an emphatic pronoun, as in His saying: “Indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind” (al-Hajj: 46).

The third is that the statement is complete at the words “then behold,” meaning: then it is plainly before them; that is, because of its nearness, it is as though it were present. Then a new statement begins: “Staring are the eyes of those who disbelieve,” with the predicate placed before the subject. Its meaning is: The eyes of those who disbelieve will stare.

Al-Kalbi said: The eyes of the disbelievers will stare, scarcely blinking because of the severity and terror of that Day. They will say: “Woe to us! We were heedless of this Day; rather, we were wrongdoers,” by placing