al-Maʿārij 70:6-7

Innahum yarawnahū baʿīdā · Wa narāhu qarībā "They see it as far off; We see it as near."

One of the most tightly built oppositions in the Qurʾān, and in fewer than ten words.

The same verb, the same object, two different subjects, two opposite verdicts. The only thing that changes is who is looking.

And here is the real point. The verse does not say "they are mistaken". Nor does it say "it is near".

It says "We see it as near".

That is, the correction is made not at the level of fact but at the level of seeing. Both sides "see"; the measure is who does the seeing.

This has a consequence worth recording: the verse implies that farness and nearness are not absolute properties. Whether a thing is far or near depends on the position of the one looking.

And the right position is specified: We.

I record this as my own reading. Its ground is that the same verb is used in both verses — the verse could have used another verb (to know, to suppose), and did not.

Root: ب-ع-د. To be far. And in Arabic this word carries one further sense besides distance: improbability, remoteness from reason.

English has the same metaphor: "a remote possibility", "that looks like a long shot".

The Qurʾān uses this second sense plainly:

• "'When we are dead and have become dust? That is a far-fetched return.'" (Qāf 50/3) — rajʿun baʿīd, "a return that will not happen".
• "How can they attain it from a place so far off?" (Sabaʾ 34/52)
• "They see it as far off." (this verse)

So the baʿīd of the verse is not merely "far off in time"; it may also mean "impossible, out of the question".

And this joins with the question in the first verse: when the man asked "when?", he really meant "never". The sixth verse names that supposition.

Both readings occur in the classical sources, and they do not exclude one another: seeing it as far in time, seeing it as far in probability. In my judgement the two work together; this is not binding.

Root: ق-ر-ب. To be near. Qurba, taqarrub and aqribāʾ are from the same root.

The Qurʾān announces the nearness of the Hour in many places:

• "The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has split." (al-Qamar 54/1)
• "The reckoning of mankind has drawn near, while they turn away in heedlessness." (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/1)
• "And perhaps it is near." (al-Aḥzāb 33/63; al-Shūrā 42/17)

Al-Shūrā 42/17 is particularly worth noting, because there the formula mā yudrīka is used: "What will make you know? Perhaps the Hour is near." By the rule recorded in the sections on al-Humaza and al-Qāriʿa, the muḍāriʿ form announces that no information will follow it — and indeed no date is given there either.

So even when the Qurʾān says the Hour is near, it gives no date. Two pieces of information are kept apart: nearness is announced, the time is not.

And here an explanation is needed, because the expression is open to misunderstanding.

The sūra spoke of a measure of fifty thousand years (4), and then says "near" (7). Do the two contradict each other?

No — and the reason they do not lies in the fourth verse itself. The fourth verse had already said that the measure is different. The seventh verse gives the consequence of that difference: what is far by your measure is near by the other measure.

So the fourth and seventh verses are parts of a single argument:

1. The measure is different (4). 2. Therefore the perception of distance is different too (6-7).

I record this as a reading of the structure; the order of the four verses is in the text.

And there is this as well. A thing's being "near" depends as much on certainty as on distance. Something certain to come is near however far away it is — because the interval does not remove it, it only defers it.

The Qurʾān frames this idea plainly elsewhere: "On the day they see it, it will be as though they had tarried [in the world] but an evening or a morning." (al-Nāziʿāt 79/46)

That is, elapsed time shrinks once it has elapsed. The waiting is long, the past is short.

I record this as a reading.