al-Aʿrāf 7:34

Wa li-kulli ummatin ajal, fa-idhā jāʾa ajaluhum lā yastaʾkhirūna sāʿatan wa lā yastaqdimūn

"Every community has its term. When their term comes, they cannot delay it by an hour, nor bring it forward."

A point of word order must be recorded: the verse comes immediately after the list (33) and immediately before the address yā banī Ādam (35).

I record this as an observation: once the list of what is forbidden is finished, an announcement of a term comes directly. And in the twenty-fourth verse the term of the individual was named (wa matāʿun ilā ḥīn); here that of the community is named.

Both verbs are of Form X, and this form generally carries the sense of seeking.

The lexicographers give two readings here:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

And the structure of the sentence must be recorded: both directions are closed at once — it neither goes back nor forward. This is a pattern repeated in the Qurʾān's announcements of the term (Yūnus 10/49, al-Naḥl 16/61, al-Muʾminūn 23/43, al-Munāfiqūn 63/11). It was treated in al-Naḥl and al-Munāfiqūn; I rely on those treatments.

Sāʿatan — "an hour, a moment" — comes indefinite, and an indefinite in a context of negation covers the smallest quantity: "not even a moment".