“You are only a warner for those who fear it. On the Day they see it, it will seem to them as though they had remained only an afternoon or its morning.”

“You are only a warner for those who fear it”: Abu Ja‘far recited “a warner” with nunation; that is, [you are only] (1) one who warns those who fear its coming. In other words, your warning benefits only those who fear it.

“On the Day they see it”: that is, when the disbelievers of Quraysh behold the Day of Resurrection. “They had remained”: in the life of this world; and it was also said: in their graves. “Only an afternoon or its morning”: al-Farra’ said: An afternoon does not have a morning; rather, the morning belongs to the beginning of the day. Yet it is common in Arabic speech for them to say, “I will come to you in the evening or in its morning.” It simply means: at the end of a day or at its beginning. Its parallel is His saying: “On the Day they see what they are promised, it will seem as though they had remained only an hour of a day” (al-Ahqaf 35). (2)