Overview (Verses 53 - 55)

Hastening God’s Punishment
 
The sūrah continues its discussion of what the unbelievers do. It refers to their precipitation of God’s punishment, when hell draws close to them:
 
They challenge you to hasten their punishment. Indeed, had not a term been set for it, that punishment would have already come upon them. Still, it will most certainly come upon them of a sudden, and they will be taken unawares. They challenge you to hasten the punishment; but indeed hell is bound to encompass the unbelievers. [That will be] on the day when suffering will overwhelm them from above them and from beneath their feet. He will then say: ‘Taste now [the result of] your own doings.’ (Verses 53-55)
 
The unbelievers heard the warnings but could not understand God’s wisdom in allowing them time to consider their positions. Hence, they challenged the Prophet to hasten their punishment. God often allows people time so that the wrongdoers continue their wicked and arrogant ways. He also tests the believers so that they grow stronger in faith and perseverance. Moreover, those who cannot remain steadfast when exposed to a test abandon the believers’ ranks. He also allows them time so that those of them whom He knows to have goodness in their hearts recognize the truth, mend their ways and accept His guidance; or else, their own offspring may grow up as believers worshipping Him alone even though their fathers were errant and misguided. Or He may leave them a while for some other purpose of His.
 
The Arab idolaters, however, could not understand God’s purpose and wise planning. Hence their challenge hastening their own punishment: “Had not a term been set for it, that punishment would have already come upon them.” (Verse 53) At this point God threatens them with the punishment which will come upon them, at its set time, but when they least expect it. Thus, it will take them by surprise and they will not be able to escape it: “Still, it will most certainly come upon them of a sudden, and they will be taken unawares.” (Verse 53)
 
Such punishment overwhelmed them later, at the Battle of Badr, confirming the truth of God’s warning. They saw with their own eyes how God’s warning and promise took effect. Yet God did not destroy them totally, as He did with earlier communities. Nor did He respond to their demands to see a physical miracle, so that they could avoid the punishment that comes to any community which continues to deny His message, persisting in disbelief, after it has been given a physical miracle. In fact many of them later accepted the faith and some even joined the ranks of the best advocates of Islam. God also produced from among their offspring many who raised the banner of Islam high, over many generations. All of this was part of God’s design and purpose, known only to Himself.
 
The warning of sudden punishment in this life which occurs when least expected is followed by another censure for their continued hastening of punishment: “They challenge you to hasten the punishment; but indeed hell is encompassing the unbelievers.” (Verse 54) Following the Qur’ānic method of presenting the future as though it is taking place now, the sūrah describes hell as encompassing the unbelievers. To them, this is hidden behind the curtains of the future, but to God, it is a visible reality. Describing its hidden reality fills one with awe and makes their hastening of punishment increasingly singular. How could anyone hasten his own punishment when hell engulfs him while he remains heedless, deluded.
 
The sūrah then draws an image of them as they are engulfed by hell, yet hastening their punishment: “On the day when suffering will overwhelm them from above and from beneath their feet. He will then say: ‘Taste now [the result of] your own doings.’“ (Verse 55)
 
This is a fearful scene, coupled with a humiliating rebuke and painful censure: “Taste now [the result of] your own doings.” (Verse 55). Such is the end of paying no heed to the warnings and of hastening the punishment.