Surah Ash-Shu'ara, Ayah 208

The Deniers will never believe until They see the Torment

Allah says: `thus We caused denial, disbelief, rejection and stubbornness to enter the hearts of the sinners.'

لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ

(They will not believe in it), i.e., the truth,

حَتَّى يَرَوُاْ الْعَذَابَ الاٌّلِيمَ

(until they see the painful torment.) means, when their excuses will be of no avail, and the curse will be upon them, and theirs will be an evil abode.

فَيَأْتِيَهُم بَغْتَةً

(It shall come to them of a sudden,) means, the punishment of Allah will come upon them suddenly,

وَهُمْ لاَ يَشْعُرُونَفَيَقُولُواْ هَلْ نَحْنُ مُنظَرُونَ

(while they perceive it not. Then they will say: "Can we be respited") means, when they see the punishment, then they will wish they had a little more time so that they can obey Allah -- or so they claim. This is like the Ayah:

أَفَرَ‌أَيْتَ إِن مَّتَّعْنَاهُمْ سِنِينَ ﴿205﴾

So tell me, If We give them enjoyment for years, - 26:205.

There is a hint in this verse that those who are bestowed with long life in this world by Allah Ta’ ala, it is His grace on them. But those who show ingratitude for this grace and do not submit to Islam, to them this respite and grace will not be of any avail. Imam Zuhri (رح) has related that Sayyidna ` Umar ibn ` Abdul Aziz (رح) used to recite this verse every morning by holding his beard and addressing his Self:

نھارک یا مغرور سھو و غفلۃ ولیلک نوم والرّدیٰ لک لازم

فلا انت فی الایقاظ یقظان حازم ولا انت فی النّوّام ناجِ و سالم

وتعٰی الٰی ما سوف تکرہ غبّہ کذٰلک فی الدّنیا تعیش البھایٔم

` O the duped one! Your whole day is spent in negligence and the night in sleep, while death is inevitable for you. Neither you are awake among the alert and woken nor are you the one who will get salvation from among the sleepers. You keep endeavoring for things which will soon bring you unpleasant results. Cattle and animals live like this in the world'.

The Quran was revealed in the Arabic language, which was also the mother tongue of the Prophet who presented it. This gave those who denied the truth the opportunity to allege that the Quran was this Prophet’s own creation. They said that, being an Arab, he had authored the Quran in Arabic. But the tenor of this objection itself clearly shows that it is lacking in seriousness. Indeed those who are not serious about matters of importance always find some flimsy excuse or the other to be critical of them. For example, if this Arabic Quran had been revealed to a non-Arab and if that person, in spite of not knowing Arabic, had recited the Arabic Quran to them, they would have immediately said that he was being tutored by some Arab. For those who lead worldly lives, any admission of Truth amounts to negating themselves. When Truth appears before them and they do not accept it, having given more importance to personal considerations, they are so conditioned to their worldly ways, that they are unable to revise their thinking and acknowledge the truth, specially when it goes against their interests.