“Or do you have binding oaths from Us, extending until the Day of Resurrection, that you shall have whatever you decree? (39) Ask them which of them will guarantee that. (40) Or do they have partners? Then let them produce their partners, if they are truthful. (41) On the Day when the Shin is uncovered and they are called to prostrate, they will not be able to do so. (42)”

“Or do you have binding oaths”: that is, covenants and pledges “from Us, extending” and confirmed—covenants by which We bound Ourselves to you, so that you secured them from Us and your covenant would not cease—“until the Day of Resurrection, that you shall have,” in that covenant, “whatever you decree” for yourselves of goodness and honor with Allah. The word translated “indeed” is recited with a kasra vowel in both verses because the emphatic lam occurs in their predicates.

Then He said to His Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “Ask them which of them will guarantee that”: that is, who among them will stand surety for their having in the Hereafter what the Muslims will have?

“Or do they have partners?” That is, do they have partners ascribed to Allah—lords who can bring this about? It was also said that they are witnesses who testify to the truth of what they claim. “Then let them produce their partners, if they are truthful.”

“On the Day when the Shin is uncovered”: it was said that “Day” is an adverbial qualifier connected to the words, “Then let them produce their partners”; that is, let them bring them on that Day, so that they may benefit them and intercede for them. Regarding the words, “On the Day when the Shin is uncovered,” it was said: it refers to a terrifying and severe matter. Ibn Abbas said, “It is the most severe hour of the Day of Resurrection.”

Said ibn Jubayr said: “On the Day when the Shin is uncovered” means when the matter becomes intensely severe.

Ibn Qutaybah said: When a man is confronted with a tremendous matter that requires earnest effort and endurance of hardship, the Arabs say, “He has bared his shin.” (1) And when the fighting in a war becomes intense, they say, “The war has bared its shin.”

Ismail ibn Abd al-Qahir informed us; Abd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn Isa al-Juludi related to us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn [Sufyan] (2) informed us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj related to us; Suwayd ibn Said related to me; Jafar related to me; Hafs ibn Maysarah related to me, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Ata ibn Yasar, from Abu Said al-Khudri, may Allah be pleased with him, that some people in the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “O Messenger of Allah, will we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection?”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Yes. Do you have any difficulty seeing the sun at midday when the sky is clear and there are no clouds? And do you have any difficulty seeing the moon on the night of the full moon when the sky is clear and there are no clouds?” They said, “No, O Messenger of Allah.” He said: “You will have no more difficulty seeing Allah on the Day of Resurrection than you have in seeing either of them. When the Day of Resurrection comes, a caller will call out: ‘Let every community follow what it used to worship.’ Then no one who worshipped Allah—righteous or wicked, apart from the People of the Book—will remain. The Jews will then be summoned, and they will be asked, ‘What did you used to worship?’ They will say, ‘We used to worship”