وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَىٰ هَٰذَا ٱلْوَعْدُ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ · قُل لَّكُم مِّيعَادُ يَوْمٍ لَّا تَسْتَـْٔخِرُونَ عَنْهُ سَاعَةً وَلَا تَسْتَقْدِمُونَ
Wa yaqūlūna matā hādha'l-waʿdu in kuntum ṣādiqīn · Qul lakum mīʿādu yawmin lā tastaʾkhirūna ʿanhu sāʿatan wa lā tastaqdimūn
"They say: 'When is this promise, if you are telling the truth?' Say: 'You have an appointed day; you can neither put it back by an hour nor bring it forward.'"
The question looks like a request for information, but it comes with a condition: in kuntum ṣādiqīn — "if you are telling the truth".
This condition changes the character of the question, and I record it as an observation: the sentence asks "when?" without waiting for an answer; it asks on the assumption that no answer can be given. The question, that is, is framed not to learn a date but to show that no date can be given.
And note: the question is put in the plural — in kuntum (you), ṣādiqīn (plural). Not to the Prophet alone, but to those who believe along with him.
And the answer does not give the date — but it does not brush the question aside either. What it gives is a certainty.
| Element of the answer | Expression | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakum mīʿādu yawmin | There is one — an appointed day |
| 2 | Lā tastaʾkhirūna ʿanhu sāʿah | It cannot be delayed |
| 3 | Wa lā tastaqdimūn | It cannot be brought forward |
Both verbs are of Form X (istifʿāl), and this form conveys seeking. That is, the sentence does not say "you will not fall behind it / you will not get ahead of it", but exactly: "you cannot ask for or manage to fall behind or get ahead".
I record this as an observation about the language: the choice of form sets the impossibility down not as an incapacity but as a request that goes unanswered.
مِيعَاد — root و-ع-د: to promise. Mīʿād — on the mifʿāl pattern: the time or place appointed. The word is from the same root as "promise" (waʿd) but points to the time.
And the word order of the sentence is worth recording: the question said hādha'l-waʿd (this promise); the answer says mīʿādu yawmin (the appointed time of a day). That is, the question was asked with the word "promise", and the answer given with the derivative of the same root that states a time.
سَاعَة — "an hour". And the word's first occurrence in the sūra must be recorded: in the third verse it was as-sāʿa (the Hour). Here the same word comes in the sense of a small span of time.
| Verse | Sāʿa | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Lā taʾtīna's-sāʿah | The Hour — the great event |
| 30 | Lā tastaʾkhirūna ʿanhu sāʿah | An hour — the smallest delay |
The same word on two scales. I record this as my own reading, and its support is that the two occurrences turn on the same subject: the sāʿa whose coming was denied in the third verse is announced in the thirtieth as something that will not shift by so much as a sāʿa. The word has turned from the subject of the objection into the measure of the answer.
The block closes here. And its closing clause is an announcement of a time — this lies on the same line as the deferral treated at Fāṭir 35/45 (yuʾakhkhiruhum ilā ajalin musammā); I rely on that treatment.