Tafseer of The Prophets · Al-Anbiyaa · 21:97
And [when] the true promise has approached; then suddenly the eyes of those who disbelieved will be staring [in horror, while they say], "O woe to us; we had been unmindful of this; rather, we were wrongdoers."
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 Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: Until, when Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj are opened, the true promise draws near. And that is the promise of Allah which He made to His servants, that He will raise them from their graves for the requital, the reward, and the punishment — and that, without doubt, is true, just as He, whose praise is sublime, has said.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes have spoken.
Mention of who said that: Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: al-Ḥakam ibn Bashīr related to us, saying: ʿAmr — that is, Ibn Qays — related to us, saying: Ḥudhayfa related to us: If a man, after the emergence of Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj, were to raise a foal until it grew up, he would not be able to ride it before the Resurrection takes place.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word and the true promise draws near: He said: The Day of Resurrection has drawn near to them. And the wāw ("and") in His word and the true promise draws near is inserted (redundant), and the meaning of the word is: Until, when Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj are opened, the true promise draws near. That is comparable to His word And when they had both submitted and he had laid him down upon his forehead * and We called out to him — its meaning is: We called out to him, without the wāw. As Imruʾ al-Qays said:
When we had crossed the open expanse of the tribe, and there inclined toward us
the floor of a hollow with curved, heaped-up sand dunes.
He means: When we had crossed the open expanse of the tribe, there inclined toward us [the hollow].
And His word Then, behold, the gazes of those who disbelieved stare fixedly: In the word "hiya" ("it/they") in His word Then, behold, they there are two possibilities. The first is that it is a reference to "the gazes" (al-abṣār), and that the explicitly mentioned "gazes" form a clarification of it, as the poet said:
By the life of her father, my wife will not say:
"Oh, if only Mālik ibn Abī Kaʿb would flee from me!"
He referred indirectly to "the wife" (al-ẓaʿīna) in "by the life of her father," and then made her explicit. The interpretation of the word is then: Then, behold, the gazes stare fixedly, the gazes of those who disbelieved.
The second is that it is a support word (ʿimād), as He, whose praise is sublime, has said For indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, and as the word of the poet:
Is then that which is here perchance a raised head?
And His word O woe to us, we were in heedlessness of this, the Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: Then the gazes of those who disbelieved stare fixedly at the coming of the true promise with its terrors and the breaking-in of the Hour with its realities, while they say: O woe to us, before this time, in the worldly life, we were in heedlessness regarding this which we now see and behold with our own eyes, and regarding the tremendous trial that has befallen us. In the word there is something omitted which is left out because of its being indicated by what is mentioned, namely "they say," from His word Then, behold, the gazes of those who disbelieved stare fixedly — they say: O woe to us. And His word Nay, we were wrongdoers, He says, reporting about what the disbelievers will say to Allah on that day: We did nothing before this Day that would save us from its calamities; nay, we were wrongdoers through our disobedience to our Lord and our obedience to Iblīs and his hosts in worshipping something other than Allah, mighty and exalted is He.
