(18–20) “Warn them of the Approaching Day, when hearts will be at throats as they suppress their anguish. The wrongdoers will have neither a close friend nor an intercessor whose plea will be accepted. * He knows the furtive glance of the eyes and what the breasts conceal. * Allah judges with truth, whereas those whom they invoke besides Him cannot judge anything. Indeed, Allah alone is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.”

The Exalted says to His Prophet Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—“Warn them of the Approaching Day”; that is, the Day of Resurrection, which has drawn near. The time has come to encounter its terrors, upheavals, and convulsions. “When hearts will be at throats”; that is, their hearts will have risen, leaving their breasts empty. Because of terror and anguish, their hearts will reach their throats while their eyes stare fixedly. “As they suppress their anguish”: they will not speak, except for one whom the Most Merciful permits and who speaks rightly. They will suppress the intense terror and dreadful alarm within their hearts.

“The wrongdoers will have neither a close friend”; that is, neither a relative nor a companion, “nor an intercessor whose plea will be accepted.” This is because the intercessors do not intercede for one who has wronged himself through associating partners with Allah. Even if their intercession were hypothetically assumed, Allah the Exalted would not approve it and would therefore not accept it.

“He knows the furtive glance of the eyes”: this is the glance a servant conceals from the person sitting beside him or accompanying him—a stolen glance—and He knows “what the breasts conceal,” which the servant has not disclosed to anyone else. Allah the Exalted knows what is hidden, so His knowledge of other, manifest matters is all the more certain.

“Allah judges with truth,” because His word is true, His religious judgment is true, and His judgment of recompense is true. His knowledge encompasses all things, and He has recorded and preserved them all. He is far above injustice, deficiency, and every other fault. He issues His universal decree: whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will cannot come to pass. He also judges between His believing and disbelieving servants in this world, deciding between them by granting a victory through which He supports His allies and beloved servants.

“Whereas those whom they invoke besides Him”—this includes everything worshipped besides Allah—“cannot judge anything,” because of their incapacity, their lack of any will to bring about good, and their inability to accomplish it. “Indeed, Allah alone is the All-Hearing” of every sound, despite the diversity of languages and the many varieties of needs, and “the All-Seeing” (1) of what has been and what will be, what we see and what we do not see, and what the servants know and what they do not know.

At the beginning of these two verses, He says, “Warn them of the Approaching Day.” He then describes it with these attributes, which call for preparation for that tremendous Day because they contain both encouragement and warning.