22:50 Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage)

تفسير الآيتين 50 و51 :ـثم ذكر تفصيل النذارة والبشارة فقال: { فَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا } بقلوبهم إيمانا صحيحا صادقا { وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ } بجوارحهم { في جنات النعيم } أي: الجنات التي يتنعم بها بأنواع النعيم من المآكل والمشارب والمناكح والصور والأصوات والتنعم برؤية الرب الكريم وسماع كلامه { والذين كفروا } أي: جحدوا نعمة ربهم وكذبوا رسله وآياته فأولئك أصحاب الجحيم أي: الملازمون لها، المصاحبون لها في كل أوقاتهم، فلا يخفف عنهم من عذابها ولا يفتر عنهم لحظة من عقابها.

" فالذين آمنوا وعملوا الصالحات " أي آمنت قلوبهم وصدقوا إيمانهم بأعمالهم " لهم مغفرة ورزق كريم " أي مغفرة لما سلف من سيئاتهم ومجازاة حسنة على القليل من حسناتهم قال محمد بن كعب القرظي إذا سمعت الله تعالى يقول " ورزق كريم " فهو الجنة.

The Recompense of the Righteous and the Unrighteous

Allah said to His Prophet , when the disbelievers asked him to hasten on the punishment for them:

قُلْ يأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّمَآ أَنَاْ لَكُمْ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ

(Say: "O mankind! I am (sent) to you only as a plain warner.") meaning, `Allah has sent me to you to warn you ahead of the terrible punishment, but I have nothing to do with your reckoning. Your case rests with Allah: if He wills, He will hasten on the punishment for you; and if He wills, He will delay it for you. If He wills he will accept the repentance of those who repent to Him; and if He wills, He will send astray those who are decreed to be doomed. He is the One Who does whatsoever He wills and wants and chooses.

لاَ مُعَقِّبَ لِحُكْمِهِ وَهُوَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ

(There is none to put back His judgement and He is swift at reckoning.) 13:41

إِنَّمَآ أَنَاْ لَكُمْ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌفَالَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ الصَّـلِحَـتِ

(I am (sent) to you only as a plain warner. So those who believe and do righteous good deeds,) means, whose hearts believe and whose actions confirm their faith.

لَّهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ وَرِزْقٌ كَرِيمٌ

(for them is forgiveness and Rizq Karim. ) means, forgiveness for their previous bad deeds, and a great reward in return for a few good deeds. Muhammad bin Ka`b Al-Qurazi said, "When you hear Allah's saying:

وَرِزْقٌ كَرِيمٌ

(Rizq Karim) this means Paradise."

وَالَّذِينَ سَعَوْاْ فِى ءَايَـتِنَا مُعَـجِزِينَ

(But those who strive against Our Ayat to frustrate them,) Mujahid said, "To discourage people from following the Prophet ." This was also the view of `Abdullah bin Az-Zubayr, "to discourage." Ibn `Abbas said, "To frustrate them means to resist the believers stubbornly."

أُوْلَـئِكَ أَصْحَـبُ الْجَحِيمِ

(they will be dwellers of the Hellfire.) This refers to the agonizingly hot Fire with its severe punish- ment, may Allah save us from it. Allah says:

الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَصَدُّواْ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ زِدْنَـهُمْ عَذَابًا فَوْقَ الْعَذَابِ بِمَا كَانُواْ يُفْسِدُونَ

(Those who disbelieved and hinder (men) from the path of Allah, for them We will add torment to the torment because they used to spread corruption) 16:88

And so those who believe and perform righteous deeds — for them there shall be forgiveness of their sins and a glorious provision namely Paradise.

How the Day of Resurrection will be equal to one thousand years by our reckoning

In this verseإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَ‌بِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ (22:47) means that one day with your Lord is like one thousand years of what you count. This verse can be interpreted in two ways. The first meaning is that the verse refers to the Day of Resurrection and the events which will take place on that day will be so horrifying and of such extreme severity that the day will appear never to end, as if it was equal to one thousand years according to our reckoning. Many commentators have interpreted this verse accordingly.

The other meaning of the verse is that the Day of Resurrection will in actual fact be so long that it will stretch up to one thousand years of this world. This view is supported by a saying of the Holy Prophet ﷺ as reported in Musnad of Ahmad and Tirmidhi on the authority of Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ that the Holy Prophet ﷺ once addressed the poor people of the muhajirin (i.e. those who migrated from Makkah) and said, ` I give you good news about the full refulgence on the Day of Resurrection and that you will be admitted to heaven half a day before the rich and the wealthy, and a day in the Hereafter will be of one thousand years, hence the poor will enter the heaven five hundred years before the wealthy'. Tirmidhi has classified this hadith as 'hasan'. (Mazhari)

A doubt and its explanation

There is a verse in Surah Al-Ma'arij which says that the day with your Lord will be equal to fifty thousand years كَانَ مِقْدَارُ‌هُ خَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ. (Whereof the measure is fifty thousand yours - 70:4) This can also be explained by applying either of the two explanations of the present verse and in the first case since every person will suffer different levels of severity, to some it will appear as if he has suffered pain for one thousand years, while to others the period will appear equal to fifty thousand years. If, however, the second explanation is applied to this verse, then there would appear to be a contradiction between the verses where one verse equates the Day of Resurrection to one thousand years and the other to fifty thousand years. But this so-called contradiction has been reconciled by Sayyidna Ashraf ` Ali Thanavi (رح))in his commentary Bayan ul-Qur'an, by saying that this difference may be due to different horizons. Just as we see in our world that the length of day and night is different on different horizons, (on zero latitude it is of 24 hours while at the latitude of 900 it is one year. Likewise it is possible that the length of the Day of Resurrection would be different on different horizons, and if its length right below the day line is one thousand years because of miraculously slow rotation of sun or earth), the areas falling 50 times far from it may have a day 50 times more in length. And Allah knows best.