Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:15
Indeed, the Hour is coming - I almost conceal it - so that every soul may be recompensed according to that for which it strives.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the word of Allah, the Exalted: إِنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا لِتُجْزَى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا تَسْعَى (Indeed, the Hour is coming. I almost conceal it from Myself, so that every soul may be recompensed for what it strives.) (15)
Allah, exalted be His praise, says: Indeed, the Hour at which Allah will raise the creatures from their graves for the standing-place of the Resurrection is coming. أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا — with a closed hamza of أُخْفِيهَا is the reading of all the readers in the Muslim lands, with the meaning: I almost conceal it from Myself, so that no one may have disposal over it. Such likewise is the explanation of most of the scholars.
Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbdullāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he says: "I make it known to none other than Myself."
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: My father related to me, saying: My uncle related to me, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word إِنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he said: "It will only come upon you suddenly."
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning إِنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he said: "From Myself."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he said: "From Myself."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — identically.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he said: "From Myself."
ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Wāṣil related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṭanāfisī related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid related to us, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, concerning His word أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he said: "He conceals it from Himself."
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا — and in some readings it reads: أُخْفِيهَا مِنْ نَفْسِي . "By my life, Allah has concealed it from the angels brought near (malāʾika muqarrabūn) and from the sent prophets."
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: he said: "In some readings it reads: إِنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا مِنْ نَفْسِي ."
Others say: it reads أَكَادُ أَخْفِيهَا with an open alif of أَخْفِيهَا , with the meaning: I make it manifest.
Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Sahl related to us, who said: "A man in the mosque asked me about this verse:
'He pastured two months, then a full month, by the two Aryks, they bring forth the green plant.'
I said: 'They bring it forth,' and Warqāʾ ibn Iyās who stood behind me said: 'Saʿīd ibn Jubayr recited it to me as أَكَادُ أَخْفِيهَا with an open alif.' From Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, however, a reading is also transmitted that agrees with the others who say that the meaning is: I almost conceal it from Myself.
Mention of the report concerning that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, and on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid; both said concerning إِنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : "From Myself."
ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl al-Habbārī related to me, saying: Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا : he said: "From Myself."
Abū Jaʿfar says: The correct of the explanations in my view is the explanation of him who says: the meaning is: I almost conceal it from Myself. For the explanation of the scholars of tafsīr has come thus, and the reading transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr with an open alif is a reading which I do not dare to adopt, for it deviates from the reading of the authority from which it is not permitted to deviate in what has been transmitted in a widespread manner.
If someone were to ask: why have you directed the explanation of His word أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا with a closed hamza toward the meaning 'I almost conceal it from Myself' and not toward the meaning 'I make it manifest,' when you know that الإخفاء (concealment) in the Arabic language has two meanings — on the one hand making manifest and on the other hand keeping secret — and that making manifest in this context fits better with the meaning of the sentence, because 'concealing it from Himself' seems almost nonsensical to the hearer, since it is impossible for someone to conceal from himself something that he himself already knows, and nothing is hidden from Allah, exalted be His praise? Then it is answered: the matter is other than you suppose. We have directed the meaning of أُخْفِيهَا with a closed hamza toward the meaning 'I conceal it from Myself' because the well-known meaning of concealment in the Arabic language is covering. One says: akhfaytu al-shayʾ when one keeps it hidden. And those who directed the meaning toward making manifest based themselves on a verse of Imruʾ al-Qays ibn ʿĀbis al-Kindī.
It has been related to me on the authority of Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā that he said: Abū al-Khaṭṭāb recited it to me, on the authority of his people in his dwelling-place:
'If you cover the disease, we shall not make it manifest, and if you unleash the war, we shall not sit idle.'
with a closed nūn of نُخْفِهِ ('we make it manifest') — their support for directing concealment in this verse toward making manifest was the transmission of this verse as they had heard it with a closed nūn. To me, however, the same verse was recited by a trustworthy informant on the authority of al-Farrāʾ with an open nūn of نَخْفِهِ , from khafaytu akhfā-hu, and that is more correct, for this is the well-known form in the Arabic language.
When this is so, and when the open hamza in أَخْفِيهَا is, in our view, not admissible for the reasons we have mentioned, the other possibility is established and correct — namely that the meaning is: I almost conceal it from Myself.
The reason why this is the correct explanation is as follows: Allah, exalted be His praise, addressed the Qurʾān to the Arabs in accordance with what they know of their own language and the manner in which they speak among themselves. When it was customary in their language that one who wished to emphasize his keeping of something secret would say: 'I have almost concealed this from myself, so strongly do I guard the secret; if I could have concealed it from myself, I would have done so' — thus Allah addressed them in accordance with the usage they knew in their speaking among themselves and what they recognized in their language.
Concerning this verse, explanations other than ours have also been given. We have chosen this explanation over the others because it agrees with the explanations of the scholars among the ṣaḥāba and the tābiʿūn — for we do not deem it permissible to contradict them in what has been transmitted from them in a widespread manner and in a way that removes the excuse.
As for the others who have said something other than what we have — on the basis of Arabic linguistic reasoning, without attributing it to an imām among the ṣaḥāba or the tābiʿūn, and on the basis of a reading that interprets the text in an uncommon manner — they are divided among themselves over its meaning:
Some say: the meaning may be: 'I wish to conceal it,' and they assert that this is known in the language. It is transmitted that the Arabs say: 'Those are my companions with whom I almost alight' with the meaning: I alight with none but them. And one says: 'I am almost not to leave my abode' with the meaning: I do not leave my abode. They based themselves on a verse of a poet:
'She desired and I desired, and that is the best of yearning, would that there returned of the time of young love what has passed away.'
And they say: by كَادَتْ is meant: she desired. The meaning would then be: I wish to conceal it so that every soul may be recompensed for what it strives.
Others say: the meaning is: 'Indeed, the Hour is coming. I was almost' — the report ending at أَكَادُ , with the meaning: I had almost come to bring it about — and then he begins anew and says: 'But I conceal it so that every soul may be recompensed for what it strives.' This is comparable to the verse of Ibn Ḍābiʾ:
'I was minded but did not do it, and I was almost — had I but let the kinsmen of ʿUthmān weep over him.'
He said: كِدْتُ with the meaning: I was almost.
Others say: the meaning of أُخْفِيهَا is: I make it manifest. They say that concealment and keeping secret in the Arabic language can also have the meaning of making manifest. Some of them based themselves for that on a verse of al-Farazdaq:
'When he saw the Ḥajjāj draw his sword, the Ḥarūrite made manifest what he had concealed.'
They say: by أَسَرَّ making manifest is meant. And the meaning of وَأَسَرُّوا النَّدَامَةَ may be: they made manifest their regret, for they said: يَا لَيْتَنَا نُرَدُّ وَلا نُكَذِّبَ بِآيَاتِ رَبِّنَا .
All these explanations that we have cited are attempts on their part to interpret the text in an uncommon manner. It is not permissible to direct the meaning of the word of Allah toward what is not its most common meaning for those to whom it is addressed; moreover, their explanation contradicts the explanation of the scholars, which is a clear proof of the incorrectness of their position.
His word لِتُجْزَى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا تَسْعَى — Allah, exalted be His praise, says: Indeed, the Hour is coming so that every soul may be recompensed — that is to say: so that every soul whom its Lord has subjected in the world to the trial of worship may be rewarded for what it strives — that is to say: for what it has done of good and evil, of obedience and disobedience.
