Tafseer of The Emissaries · Al-Mursalaat · 77:11
And when the messengers' time has come...
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.
( wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat ) ("and when to the messengers their time is appointed") means: the Exalted, praised be His mention, says: and when the messengers are set a term to gather together at their appointed time on the Day of Resurrection.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of those who said that:
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: ( wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat ): he says: they were brought together.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, 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 — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: ( uqqitat ): he said: a term was set for them.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, who said: Mujāhid said concerning ( wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat ): he said: a term was set for them.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us; and Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us — both on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning ( wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat ): he said: the [time] was announced to them.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word: ( wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat ): he said: the [time] was set for them for the Day of Resurrection, and he recited: yawma yajmaʿu Allāhu al-rusula ("the day on which Allah gathers the messengers together"). He said: and al-ajal (the term) is al-mīqāt (the appointed time), and he recited: yasʾalūnaka ʿani al-ahillati qul hiya mawāqītu li-l-nāsi wa-l-ḥajj ("they ask you about the new moons; say: they are appointed times for the people and for the pilgrimage (ḥajj)"), and he recited: ilā mīqāti yawmin maʿlūm ("until the appointed time of a known day"). He said: until the Day of Resurrection. He said: they have a term until that day, until they reach it.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning His word: ( wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat ): he said: the [time] was announced to them.
The reciters differed over the reading of it. Most of the reciters of Medina except Abū Jaʿfar, and most of the reciters of Kūfa, read ( uqqitat ) with a hamza and doubling of the qāf. Some of the reciters of Baṣra read it with a wāw and doubling of the qāf: ( wuqqitat ). And Abū Jaʿfar read ( wuqitat ) with a wāw and without doubling of the qāf.
The correct judgment concerning this is that one says: all of these are well-known readings and well-known linguistic forms with one and the same meaning; with whichever of them the reciter recites, he is correct. For it is [a form] fuʿʿilat derived from al-waqt (the time), except that some of the Arabs find the ḍamma of the wāw heavy — just as they find the kasra of the yāʾ at the beginning of a word heavy — and so pronounce it with a hamza; thus they say: "these [are] ajuh ḥisān" (beautiful faces) with a hamza [instead of wujūh]. And some recite:
"He makes his seclusion [his dwelling] and is called 'husband,' and like a wealth of his is an impoverishment."
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The footnotes:
(4) This verse is among the proof-texts of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (353), and its first word is in the script "bjl" — with bāʾ, jīm and lām — and it is obscure. He [al-Farrāʾ] said: and His word wa-idhā al-rusulu uqqitat — the reciters are agreed in reading it with a hamza, while in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd it is "wuqitat" with a wāw. Abū Jaʿfar al-Madanī read it "wuqitat" without doubling. It was read with a hamza because the wāw, when it is the first letter and takes a ḍamma, is pronounced with a hamza. To that belongs: "ṣallā al-qawmu uḥdānā" [instead of wuḥdānā]. And one of them recited to me: "yaḥullu uḥaydahu …" the verse. And they say: "these [are] ajuh ḥisān" with a hamza, because the ḍamma of the wāw is heavy, just as the kasra of the yāʾ was heavy. End [of quotation].
The point of the proof in the verse is that the hamza of "uḥayda" is transformed from a wāw, and its origin is "wuḥayda" — just as it was transformed in "uḥdānā," whose origin is "wuḥdānā." I [the editor] say: and in (al-Lisān: w-ḥ-d) [it states]: al-Waḥīd is a certain place, and a sand-dune among the sand-dunes of al-Dahnāʾ. And (under b-ʿ-l): al-baʿl is every tree or crop that is not irrigated; and of the date-palm: that which drinks by its roots without irrigation; and the high-lying land that is struck by rain only once a year. End.
