Hatta itha raaw ma yooAAadoona fasayaAAlamoona man adAAafu nasiran waaqallu AAadadan
English
Ahmed Ali
Until they see what they are promised, when they will understand who is weaker in aid and poorer in numbers.
24
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (till (the day)) he says: wait for them until the day (when they shall behold that which they are promised) of chastisement; (but then they will know for certain) this is a threat from allah to them (who is weaker in allies and less in multitude) who has less helpers.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : such that when they see (hattā is for inceptiveness, [but] also entailing a purposive sense to an implied preceding clause, that is to say, they persist in their disbelief until they come to see …) what they are promised, of chastisement, they will then know, at the moment that it befalls them, [either] on the day of badr or on the day of resurrection, who is weaker in supporters and fewer in numbers, in assistants: is it them or the believers — according to the former [reading]? or, is it me or them, according to the latter. some of them said, ‘when will this promise be [fulfilled]?’, whereupon the following was revealed:
