(63–68) “People ask you about the Hour. Say, ‘Knowledge of it rests with Allah alone. What could make you know? Perhaps the Hour is near. Indeed, Allah has cursed the disbelievers and prepared for them a Blaze, in which they will remain forever. They will find neither a protecting ally nor a helper. On the Day their faces are turned about in the Fire, they will say, “If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!” They will also say, “Our Lord, we obeyed our leaders and prominent men, and they led us away from the Way. Our Lord, give them double the punishment and curse them with a mighty curse.”’”
That is, people ask you for information about the Hour. Some seek to hasten it, while others deny that it will occur and seek to confound the one who informed them of it. “Say” to them, “Knowledge of it rests with Allah alone.” That is, no one knows when it will come except Allah; neither I nor anyone else has any knowledge of it. Even so, do not (1) think it slow in coming.
“What could make you know? Perhaps the Hour is near.” Whether the Hour is near or distant is of no consequence or benefit in itself. The consequential question—one of loss or gain, misery (2) or happiness—is whether a servant deserves punishment or reward. This is what I shall tell you about, and I shall describe those who deserve each.
He therefore described those who deserve punishment and the punishment itself, because the description given applies to these deniers of the Hour. He said: “Indeed, Allah has cursed the disbelievers”—[that is,] (3) those for whom disbelief has become a constant habit and way: disbelief in Allah, His messengers, and what they brought from Him. He has thus cast them far from His mercy in this world and the Hereafter, and that alone is sufficient punishment. “And prepared for them a Blaze”—that is, a kindled fire that will blaze upon their bodies ⦗673⦘ and whose torment will reach their hearts. They will remain forever in that severe punishment, never leaving it, nor will it be lightened for them for even an hour.
“They will find neither a protecting ally” to grant them what they seek “nor a helper” to ward off the punishment from them. Rather, the Protector and Helper will have forsaken them, the torment of the Blaze will encompass them, and it will overwhelm them terribly.
Hence He said: “On the Day their faces are turned about in the Fire.” They will taste its heat, its horror will weigh heavily upon them, and they will bitterly regret what they sent forth.
“They will say, ‘If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!’” We would then have been spared this punishment and, like the obedient, would have deserved an immense reward. But the time for that wish will have passed, and it will bring them nothing but remorse, regret, anguish, grief, and pain.
“They will also say, ‘Our Lord, we obeyed our leaders and prominent men’” and blindly followed them in their misguidance, “and they led us away from the Way.”
This is like the statement of Allah Most High: “On the Day the wrongdoer will bite his hands and say, ‘If only I had taken the path with the Messenger! Woe to me! If only I had not taken so-and-so as a close friend! He certainly led me away from the Reminder after it had come to me’”—to the end of the verse.
When they realize that both they and their leaders deserve punishment, they will seek to vent their anger upon those who led them astray, saying: “Our Lord, give them double the punishment and curse them with a mighty curse.” Allah will say that each shall have double, for all of them shared in disbelief and sins and will therefore share in the punishment, though the punishment of some will exceed that of others according to the gravity of their offenses.