Surah Saba, Ayah 52

وَأُخِذُواْ مِن مَّكَانٍ قَرِيبٍ

(and they will be seized from a near place.) means, they will not even be given the slightest chance of escape, but they will be seized from the first instant. Al-Hasan Al-Basri said: "When they come forth from their graves."

وَقَالُواْ ءَامَنَّا بِهِ

(And they will say: "We do believe (now);") means, on the Day of Resurrection, they will say, `we believe in Allah and His angels, Books and Messengers.' This is like the Ayah:

وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذِ الْمُجْرِمُونَ نَاكِسُواْ رُءُوسِهِمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ رَبَّنَآ أَبْصَرْنَا وَسَمِعْنَا فَارْجِعْنَا نَعْمَلْ صَـلِحاً إِنَّا مُوقِنُونَ

The word: تَّنَاوُشُ (tanawush) in verse 52: وَقَالُوا آمَنَّا بِهِ وَأَنَّىٰ لَهُمُ التَّنَاوُشُ مِن مَّكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ (And they will say, “ We believe in Him." And how can they achieve it (the faith) from a place (so) far off?) means to pick up something by stretching one's hand. Then, it is obvious that one can pick up only what is near at hand. If it is very far, it will be out of reach. The subject of the verse is that disbelievers and deniers, once they see reality as it is on the Day of Judgment, will say, "We have now come to believe in the Qur'an, or the messenger of Allah to whom it was revealed." But, they would not know that the time and place for embracing 'Iman (faith) has receded far away from them for the reason that 'Iman is a thing of the life of the mortal world and that alone is what is accepted. The 'Akhirah (the Hereafter) is not the venue of deeds, the place to act right (darul-'amal). Nothing done there can be taken into account. Therefore, how is it possible that they pick up the great wealth of 'Iman just by stretching their hand for it.

The world has been created on the basis of Truth. Here, all emphasis is on Truth and all arguments support the Truth. Under these circumstances, Truth should prevail and untruth should carry no weight. But, it is not always so. In this world, sometimes Truth is unable to triumph over untruth. The reason for this is that this world is a testing ground, and the rules pertaining to the human trial are prevalent here. So, even untruth has the opportunity to flourish here. But this situation will last only till the end of the trial period. On the Day of Judgement, this unrealistic situation will end once and for all. At that time, all evidence will substantiate the Truth, and untruth will be completely valueless. This event will become a reality on the Day of Judgement. But if and when God wishes, He shows a glimpse of it in this world itself, so that people may learn a lesson from it. A demonstration of this was when Makkah fell and monotheism overcame polytheism, the Prophet of God recited this verse, ‘Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished, for falsehood is bound to perish.’