وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ كَأَن لَّمْ يَلْبَثُوٓا۟ إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِّنَ ٱلنَّهَارِ يَتَعَارَفُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ · وَإِمَّا نُرِيَنَّكَ بَعْضَ ٱلَّذِى نَعِدُهُمْ أَوْ نَتَوَفَّيَنَّكَ فَإِلَيْنَا مَرْجِعُهُمْ
"On the day He gathers them — as though they had stayed no more than an hour of a day — they will recognise one another. Those who denied the meeting with God have indeed lost; they were not on the right way. · Whether We show you something of what We promise them, or take you to Us: their return is to Us. Then God is witness over what they do."
كَأَن لَّمْ يَلْبَثُوٓا۟ إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِّنَ ٱلنَّهَارِ — and the pattern ka-an lam occurs for the third time in the sūra.
| Verse | What is erased |
|---|---|
| 12 | Ka-an lam yadʿunā — a prayer that was made |
| 24 | Ka-an lam taghna bi'l-ams — a place that existed |
| 45 | Ka-an lam yalbathū illā sāʿatan — a lifetime that was lived |
Three occurrences, one pattern. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the repetition of the pattern: the sūra shows that three distinct things can become as though they had never been — a prayer, a place, a lifetime. And in all three what is erased is the thing that seems most impossible to erase.
| Reading | What it says |
|---|---|
| 1 | The recognition shows how short the time was — as if a span had passed just long enough to recognise one another |
| 2 | The recognition is then cut off — they recognise one another, then each is left to himself |
وَإِمَّا نُرِيَنَّكَ بَعْضَ ٱلَّذِى نَعِدُهُمْ أَوْ نَتَوَفَّيَنَّكَ (46) — the sentence is almost identical with al-Raʿd 13/40 and was treated there in detail.
| al-Raʿd 13/40 | Yūnus 10/46 | |
|---|---|---|
| Condition | Wa in mā nuriyannaka … aw natawaffayannaka | Wa immā nuriyannaka … aw natawaffayannaka |
| Answer | Fa-innamā ʿalayka'l-balāghu wa ʿalayna'l-ḥisāb | Fa-ilaynā marjiʿuhum, thumma'llāhu shahīdun ʿalā mā yafʿalūn |
al-Raʿd drew the limit by a division of labour; Yūnus draws it by the place of return. I record this as an observation: the two verses say the same thing with two different words — the one ḥisāb, the other marjiʿ.
And at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56 a table of this limit across seven sūras was set up. What Yūnus adds to that table is the ninety-ninth verse, and I shall take it up there.