“Rather, their knowledge will be complete in the Hereafter. Yet they are in doubt about it; indeed, they are blind to it.” (66)

Those who disbelieve say, “When we and our forefathers have become dust, shall we really be brought forth? (67) We and our forefathers were promised this before. This is nothing but tales of the ancients.” (68)

“Rather, their knowledge will be complete”: Abu Ja‘far, Ibn Kathir, and Abu ‘Amr recited it as adraka, in the pattern meaning “to reach” or “overtake,” as one says, “My knowledge reached it,” meaning that it caught up with and attained it. That is, what they were ignorant of in this world, and what their knowledge failed to encompass, they will come to know in the Hereafter. Mujahid said: Their knowledge will reach completion in the Hereafter, and they will know it when they behold it—at a time when their knowledge will no longer benefit them.

Muqatil said: In the Hereafter, when they behold it, they will know that which they doubted and to which they were blind in this world. This is indicated by His saying, “Yet they are in doubt about it,” meaning that today they doubt the Hour.

The others recited it as iddaraka, joined together, with a doubled letter d and an alif after it; that is, their knowledge of the Hereafter became complete, successive, and joined together. It was also said that it means: their knowledge has come together concerning the certainty that the Hereafter will occur, though they remain doubtful about its time; thus, it carries the first meaning.

It was also said that it is phrased as a question: Has their knowledge of that become complete and successive in the Hereafter? That is, it has not become complete; rather, their knowledge of it has gone astray and vanished, so they have neither attained nor grasped it. The interrogative form carries an implication of negation, as the wording indicates. Ibn ‘Abbas recited balā, retaining the final y, and addāraka, with an opening vowel on the initial alif, as a question; that is, it has not been attained. In the reading of Ubayy: “Or has their knowledge become complete?” The Arabs may use bal (“rather”) in place of am (“or”), and am in place of bal (1).

The sum of its meaning is that Allah informs us that, when they are resurrected on the Day of Resurrection, their knowledge of the Hereafter and of the reward and punishment promised therein will become equal, even though their knowledge differed in this world. ‘Ali ibn ‘Isa mentioned that bal here means “if”: if they had grasped in this world what they will grasp in the Hereafter ⦗59⦘, they would not have doubted.

His saying, “Yet they are in doubt about it,” means that today, in this world, they are doubtful about the Hour. “Indeed, they are blind to it”: ‘amūn is the plural of one who is blind at heart. Al-Kalbi said: It means that they are ignorant of it.

“Those who disbelieve say,” meaning the idolaters of Mecca, “When we and our forefathers have become dust, shall we really be brought forth?”—that is, brought forth alive from our graves. The people of Medina recited idhā without an interrogative form, and a-innā interrogatively. Ibn ‘Amir and al-Kisa’i recited a-idhā with two glottal stops, and a-innanā with two letters n; the others recited it interrogatively. “We and our forefathers were promised this before,” that is, this resurrection, “before Muhammad,” (2)