(42–46) “They ask you about the Hour: when will it arrive? What have you to do with mentioning it? With your Lord alone rests its final knowledge. You are only a warner to those who fear it. On the Day they see it, it will be as though they had remained only an afternoon or the morning thereof.”

That is, those who ask obstinately and deny the resurrection ask you “about the Hour”: when will it occur, and “when will it arrive?” Allah answered them by saying, “What have you to do with mentioning it?” That is, what benefit is there for you or them in mentioning it and knowing when it will come? Nothing useful would result from that. Since people’s knowing the time of the Hour would bring them neither religious nor worldly benefit—and their welfare instead lies in its being hidden from them—He withheld this knowledge from all creation and reserved it exclusively for Himself. He therefore said, “With your Lord alone rests its final knowledge”; that is, its knowledge rests with Him alone. As He says in another verse:

“They ask you about the Hour: when will it arrive? Say, ‘Its knowledge rests only with my Lord. None but He will reveal it at its appointed time. It weighs heavily upon the heavens and the earth and will come upon you only suddenly.’ They ask you as though you were fully informed about it. Say, ‘Its knowledge rests only with Allah, but most people do not know.’” (1).

“You are only a warner to those who fear it”; that is, your warning [benefits] only those who fear the coming of the Hour and dread standing before Him. They are concerned only with preparing for it and performing deeds for its sake. As for one who does not believe in it, neither he nor his obstinate questioning is to be heeded, for such questioning is founded upon stubbornness and denial. Once it reaches this point, answering it would be futile—something from which the All-Wise is far above. [Completed] All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.