Surah As-Sajdah, Ayah 30

How the Disbelievers sought to hasten on the Punishment, and what happened to Them

Allah tells us how the disbelievers sought to hasten on the punishment, and to bring the wrath and vengeance of Allah upon themselves, because they thought this punishment would never happen, and because of their disbelief and stubbornness.

وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَى هَـذَا الْفَتْحُ

(They say: "When will this Fath be...") meaning, `when will you prevail over us, O Muhammad, since you claim that there will be a time when you will gain the upper hand over us and take your revenge on us, so when will that happen All we see of you and your companions is that you are hiding, afraid and humiliated.' Allah says:

To answer that, Allah Ta'ala said: قُلْ يَوْمَ الْفَتْحِ لَا يَنفَعُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُ‌وا إِيمَانُهُمْ (Say, 'On the day of decision their belief will not be of any use to disbelievers,'-29) This amounts to saying: Why are you asking us about the day of our victory while that day is going to be a day of trouble for you? When victory comes to us, you would have already been overtaken by punishment. May be, right here in this world - as it happened in the battle of Badr - or, in the Hereafter. And when the punishment of Allah seizes someone, then, no profession of faith at that time, no declaration of 'Iman at that stage is accepted. (as mentioned by Ibn Kathir)

There are some others who have interpreted the 'day' in: مَتٰی ھٰذا الفَتح ("When will this decision take place?" ) as the day of Qiyamah. The summarized explanation of this verse in Bayan-ul-Qur'an appearing in the original edition of Ma` ariful-Qur'an is based on this tafsir. ( The translation of al-lath as 'decision' as given in the text admits both probablities)

Al-hamdulillah

The Commentary on

Surah As-Sajdah

Ends here.

In ancient Makkah the polytheists were dominant, while Islam was in a very weak position, so much so that the polytheists used to ridicule Islam and Muslims. In response to this, Almighty God has given an example: He asks people to consider a land which is dry and barren. To all appearances, it seems impossible that it will ever become covered with greenery. But, God causes the clouds to pour rain-water on it. In a few days time, the dry land is replaced with lush green fields. Similarly, God’s powers can cause Islam to flourish and become the predominant ideology of the world.