the Hour except that I will inform you of it.” Abd Allah ibn Hudhafah al-Sahmi then stood and asked, “Who is my father, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “Hudhafah.” Then Umar stood and said, “O Messenger of Allah, we are content with Allah as our Lord, Islam as our religion, the Quran as our guide, and you as our Prophet. So pardon us—may Allah pardon you.” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Will you then desist?” He then came down from the pulpit, and Allah, Exalted is He, revealed this verse. (1)

They differed over the ruling and arrangement of the verse. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, al-Dahhak, Muqatil, al-Kalbi, and most commentators said: The address is directed to the disbelievers and hypocrites. That is: “Allah would not leave the believers in the condition you are now in”—O company of disbelievers and hypocrites, in your disbelief and hypocrisy—“until He separates the wicked from the good.”

Others said that the address is directed to the believers mentioned in the verse. Its meaning is: Allah would not leave you, O company of believers, in your present state, in which the believer is indistinguishable from the hypocrite. Thus, the wording shifts from narrative statement to direct address.

Regarding the words, “until He separates”: Hamzah, al-Kisa’i, and Ya‘qub read it with a dammah on the initial letter and with consonantal doubling, as they also read the corresponding word in Surah al-Anfal. The rest read it without doubling. One says, “He separated a thing,” using the simple form, and “he distinguished it,” using the intensified form, when he differentiates it and it becomes distinct. Abu Mu‘adh said: When you differentiate between two things, you use the simple form, “I separated them.” When there are multiple things, you use the intensified form, “I distinguished them.” Likewise, when you make one thing into two, you say, using the simple form, “I divided it”; hence the parting of the hair. But if you make it into many parts, you say, using the intensified form, “I divided it into parts.”

The meaning of the verse is: until He distinguishes the hypocrite from the sincere believer. Thus Allah distinguished the believers from the hypocrites on the Day of Uhud, when the hypocrites displayed their hypocrisy and held back from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Qatadah said: Until He distinguishes the disbeliever from the believer through emigration and jihad.

Al-Dahhak said: “Allah would not leave the believers in the condition you are now in”—in the loins of men and the wombs of women, O company of hypocrites and polytheists—until He separates you from the believers who are in your loins and in the wombs of your women.

It was also said: “Until He separates the wicked”—that is, the sinful person—“from the good”—that is, the believer. This means: until He removes the burdens of sin from the believer through the adversity, trial, and calamity that befall him. “Nor would Allah disclose to you the unseen,” for no one besides Him knows the unseen. (2) “But Allah chooses from His messengers whomever He wills,” and thus discloses to him some knowledge of the unseen. Similar to this is His saying, Exalted is He:

“Knower of the unseen, He does not disclose His unseen to anyone, except to a messenger whom He chooses.” (Surah al-Jinn, verses 26–27)

Al-Suddi said: Its meaning is that Allah would not disclose the unseen to Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, but Allah chose him. “So believe in Allah and His messengers; and if you believe and fear Allah, then yours will be a great reward.”