Verse. 947

٦ - ٱلْأَنْعَام

6 - Al-An'am

ہَلْ يَنْظُرُوْنَ اِلَّاۗ اَنْ تَاْتِـيَہُمُ الْمَلٰۗىِٕكَۃُ اَوْ يَاْتِيَ رَبُّكَ اَوْ يَاْتِيَ بَعْضُ اٰيٰتِ رَبِّكَ۝۰ۭ يَوْمَ يَاْتِيْ بَعْضُ اٰيٰتِ رَبِّكَ لَا يَنْفَعُ نَفْسًا اِيْمَانُہَا لَمْ تَكُنْ اٰمَنَتْ مِنْ قَبْلُ اَوْ كَسَبَتْ فِيْۗ اِيْمَانِہَا خَيْرًا۝۰ۭ قُلِ انْتَظِرُوْۗا اِنَّا مُنْتَظِرُوْنَ۝۱۵۸
Hal yanthuroona illa an tatiyahumu almalaikatu aw yatiya rabbuka aw yatiya baAAdu ayati rabbika yawma yatee baAAdu ayati rabbika la yanfaAAu nafsan eemanuha lam takun amanat min qablu aw kasabat fee eemaniha khayran quli intathiroo inna muntathiroona

English

Ahmed Ali

What are the people waiting for? For the angels to come down, or your Lord to appear, or some signs from your Lord? The day when certain signs appear from your Lord, the embracing of faith shall not be of any avail to one who did not come to belief at first, or who did not perform good deeds by virtue of his faith. Tell them: "Wait on, we are waiting too (for the good and evil to become distinct)."

158

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (wait they) i.e. the people of mecca, (indeed, for nothing less than that the angels should come unto them) to take their souls away at the moment of death, (or thy lord should come) on the day of judgement, and his coming is without modality, (or there should come one of the portents from thy lord) i.e. the rising of the sun from the west? (in the day when one of the portents from they lord cometh) before the rising of the sun from the west, (its belief availeth naught a soul which theretofore) before the rising of the sun from the west (believed not, nor in its belief earned good) nor was it sincere in its belief, nor doing any good works before the rising of the sun from the west. this is because no faith, works or repentance are accepted from an unbeliever who embraces islam upon seeing the sun rise from the west, unless that person is young at that time or is born after. in such a case, if he leaves islam after the sun rises from the west and then returns to islam, his repentance is accepted. likewise, the repentance of a sinning believer who repents of his sins after the sun rises from the west is accepted. (say) o muhammad to the people of mecca: (wait you) the day of judgement! (lo! we (too) are waiting) for your punishment on the day of judgement or before the day of judgement; it is also said that this means: say, o muhammad, wait for my destruction, i am also waiting for yours.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : are they waiting — the deniers are indeed waiting — for nothing less than that the angels should come to them (read ta’tīyahum or ya’tīyahum), to seize their souls, or that your lord, that is, his command, meaning his chastisement, should come, or that one of your lord’s signs should come?, that is, those portents of his that indicate [the arrival of] the hour? on the day that one of your lord’s signs comes — and this is the rising of the sun from the west, as reported in the hadīth of the two sahīhs [of bukhārī and muslim] — it shall not benefit a soul to believe if it had not believed theretofore (lam takun āmanat min qabl is an adjectival qualification of nafs, ‘a soul’) or, a soul which had not [until then], earned in its belief some good, some [act of] obedience, that is to say, its repentance shall be of no benefit to it, as [stated] in the hadīth [corpus]. say: ‘wait, for one of these things, we too are waiting’, for it.