Verse 53

20:105; 23:114-115.

Commentary:

This verse confirms the interpretation of the previous verse viz. that the resurrection referred to is the one which took place in Arabia after the Fall of Mecca when the whole country responded to the call of God and His Prophet with a feeling of thanksgiving and Divine glorification.

The words, and you will think that you have tarried but a little while, mean that disbelievers would realize that the victory of Islam was not a distant consummation, as wrongly imagined by them, but an event close at hand. Another sense implied in the words is that on that day they would feel that the period of their lives spent in ignorance and opposition to Islam was wasted and that their real lives had begun only with their acceptance of Islam. Similarly, the Faithful would also look back with satisfaction upon the days they had spent in adversity and privation and would regard their bitter experiences of the past as a dream. The words 'a little while' do not, in fact, refer to the length of any period of time, but to the nature of the emotion which the memory of those days will awaken in the minds of believers as well as disbelievers.