In the name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The Soorah starts with the mention of the demand by some Makkans from the Prophet to bring about the Doomsday that he was warning about.

1 A demander has demanded[1] the doom that is bound to fall 2 upon the disbelievers, that none will be able to ward off, and 3 that will be from Allaah Who owns the ways and means to infinitely high ranks. 4 The angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) ascend towards Him in a day the span of which is fifty thousand years. 5 So be patient with comely patience. 6 They certainly consider it far away, 7 while We see it nearby.

The deniers of the Hereafter have been told that:

§ The destruction of the doomsday is inevitable and that Day is bound to come, but it will come on its time pre-determined by Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala. Neither can their demands bring it earlier, nor can their denials make it go away.

§ When Allaah makes it happen, it will be unstoppable. No one in the heavens or earth will be able to ward it off – including any of the deniers, their invented gods, angels or anyone else for that matter.

§ Human concept of time is defined and bound by the movements of the earth, moon and sun and thus is limited in application to life on earth and is counted in short measures. They cannot perceive time beyond what they understand from the movements of the earth. Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala is exalted and infinitely above and beyond these limitations. His timetable spans thousands, millions and billions of years of human reckoning. For example, even an angelic activity spans periods like 50,000 years. So what people may think of as a very long time is as the blink of an eye in Allaah’s timetable. So the “delay” in the advent of doomsday in their perception should not delude them. According to Allaah’s timetable, it is about to happen and is close at hand. Thousands of years in the human calendar are like a day or less in Allaah’s calendar. People of this age can understand it by taking a ratio of a thousand or two thousand years to 13 or 14 billion years -- the presumed age of the universe.

According to the Qur-aan, “The Spirit” is the title of Angel Jibreel (Gabriel). For example, in Soorah Al-Baqarah, Jibreel has been mentioned by name, “Whoever has become the adversary of Jibreel because he brought it (the Qur-aan) down to your mind…” And then in Soorah Ash-Shu‘araa, he has been mentioned by his title, “Trusted Spirit brought it (the Qur-aan) down to your mind.” Jibreel, the Spirit, has been mentioned separately from the angels to underscore his high status.

As for the nature of the angelic activity of ascending toward Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala, it is of the Mutashaabihaat category – beyond our understanding, imagination and capacity. The intent is just to let people realize that the exalted greatness of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala is infinitely beyond their perception and that they should not think of Allaah’s timetable and units of time in terms of human concepts of time. Some people have interpreted this to be the length of the Day of Resurrection. The Hadeeth quoted in that respect is not trustworthy (is dha‘eef) because of two unreliable persons in the chain of narrators. The context does not allow it to mean that way because the conditions of that Day are not being mentioned here, they are coming in verse 8. Here it is explaining the word Ma‘aarij in relation to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala and giving the concept of divine units of time in human terms.

Now the Prophet ŝall Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was most earnestly trying his best to make the Makkans realize and accept the reality of the Day of Resurrection and the Hereafter, but in return he was being ridiculed by sardonic demands. Thus it was natural for him to feel hurt. Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala is advising him to take their ignorant behaviour and vicious reaction to his preaching in stride and to remain patient and steadfast in his mission. He should not only be patient and steadfast, but he should do so in a dignified manner: not reacting emotionally, but ignoring it gracefully and magnanimously; without feeling disheartened, and without giving up or slowing down in the mission, but rather remaining on course in a steadfast manner.

The next set of verses gives people a glimpse of the conditions of that day.

8 On that day, the sky will be like murky oil, 9 the mountains will be like flakes of wool 10 and no close friend will ask a close friend of his condition, 11 though they will be put in sight of each other. The criminal will long to be able to ransom himself from the punishment of that day at the price of his children, 12 and his wife and his brother, 13 and his nearest kindred who sheltered him, 14 and all those that are on the earth collectively, so this ransom might save him.

The first two verses point towards the universe-wide destruction. The word used to describe the condition of heaven during the initial stage of destruction is that it will look like “Muhl” which is used for describing different types of thick, liquid-type material such as sediments at the bottom of oil (murky oil), molten copper or molten silver, perhaps indicating the explosion of stars spreading molten matter in the sky. The condition of the mountains in the early period of destruction will be that their solid rocks will become powdered and scattered like dyed wool or cotton that is fluffed like falling snow flakes.

Verses 10 -14 describe the human attitude after resurrection. Everyone will be so self-centred and worried about his or her own salvation that they will not care for anyone else. Those who used to be very close friends, willing to do everything for each other, will see each other, but not even care to ask how the other is doing. Rather, every wrong-doer will be willing to sacrifice their children, spouses, their dearest relatives and the whole world just to save himself / herself from the punishment of that day. An Arab’s loyalty to one’s clan and tribe was paramount. A clan or tribe would go to any length to protect one of its own at any cost and an individual would be ever willing to sacrifice his life for the honour of his tribe or clan. But on that day every wrongdoer would wish that he could give the whole clan as ransom to attain his own personal salvation.

However, nothing except one’s personal faith in Islam and his good deeds will be of any avail. In the absence of Islamic faith and good deeds, there will be no salvation and a person will have to suffer the punishment of fire.

FootNotes

[1] Verse 41 itself does not specify whether the replacement of disbelievers with those better than them is to happen in this world or in the Hereafter.