Here Allah tells His Messenger that he cannot know when the Hour will come, and if people ask him about that, He instructs him to refer the matter to Allah, may He be exalted, as Allah says in Surat Al-A`raf, even though that was revealed in Makkah and this Surah was revealed in Al-Madinah. Allah continues to tell him to refer this matter to the One Who knows about it, but He tells him that it is at hand, as He says:
(What do you know It may be that the Hour is near!) This is like the Ayat:
(The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder.) 54:1
(Draws near for mankind their reckoning, while they turn away in heedlessness.) 21:1
(The Event (the Hour) ordained by Allah will come to pass, so seek not to hasten it) 16:1.
Then Allah says:
(Verily, Allah has cursed the disbelievers,) means, He has distanced them from His mercy.
(and has prepared for them a flaming Fire (Hell).) means, in the Hereafter. e
(Wherein they will abide forever,) means, they will stay there forever and ever, never leaving or finding relief from it.
(and they will find neither a a protector nor a helper.) means, they will have no saviour to help them or rescue them from their predicament. Then Allah says:
(On the Day when their faces will be turned over in the Fire, they will say: "Oh, would that we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger.") means, they will be dragged into the Fire on their faces and their faces will be contorted in Hell, and in that state they will wish that they had been among those who had obeyed Allah and His Messenger in this world. Allah describes how they will be in the Hereafter:
(And the Day when the wrongdoer will bite at his hands, he will say: "Oh! Would that I had taken a path with the Messenger. Ah! Woe to me! Would that I had never taken so-and-so as an intimate friend! He indeed led me astray from the Reminder after it had come to me. And Shaytan is to man ever a deserter in the hour of need.") (25:27-29)
(How much would those who disbelieved wish that they had been Muslims.) (15:2) And here too, Allah tells us that when they are in this state, they will wish that they had obeyed Allah and His Messenger in this world:
(And they will say: "Our Lord! Verily, we obeyed our chiefs and our great ones, and they misled us from the way.") Tawus said: " `Our chiefs' means their nobles and `our great ones' means their scholars."
(Our Lord! Give them double torment) means, `for their disbelief and because they mislead us.' Abu Al-Qasim At-Tabarani recorded from Abu Rafi` that among the names of those who fought with `Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was Al-Hajjaj bin `Amr bin Ghaziyah, and he was the one who, when they met, said; "O people of the Ansar! Do you want to say when we meet our Lord:
(Our Lord! Verily, we obeyed our chiefs and our great ones, and they misled us from the way. Our Lord! Give them double torment and curse them with a mighty curse!)"