Yatakhafatoona baynahum in labithtum illa AAashra (surah TaHa: 103)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(20:103) they will whisper to one another, "You hardly stayed for ten days on the Earth. " *80

Yatakhaafatoona bainahum il labistum illaa `ashraa

*80) The original text tray also be interpreted to mean: "After your death, you may have passed hardly ten days till now." As regards the interpretation adopted in the translation, it is supported by XXVI: 112-113: "When Allah will ask them, 'For how many years did you stay on the Earth?' They will say, 'We stayed there for a day - or a pan of a day: You may ask those who have kept the record!" The second interpretation is supported by XXX: 55-56: "And on the day when Resurrection will take place, the criminals will declare on oaths, 'We have not remained in the state of dealt for more than an hour.' And likewise they were deluded on the Earth. On the other hand, those who have been given Knowledge and Faith will say, 'According to the Book of Allah, you have remained in this state up to the Day of Resurrection, and this is the very Day of Resurrection, but you did not know of it'. " Both the interpretations are supported by other verses of the Qur'an. It is clear from these that they will consider both the life on the Earth and the life in the interval between death and Resurrection to be very short. They will consider the earthly life to be very short because, against alI their expectations, they will have to face the eternal life in the Hereafter which they denied in their earthly life. As they had made no preparation for this life, they will wring their hands with regret that they had ruined their eternal life for the sake of a few transitory pleasures of the short life they had been given on the Earth. As regards the duration of the interval between death and Resurrection, they will consider it to be very short, for they will imagine that they had been suddenly awakened by the "Trumpet" from their last sleep or unconsciousness in their earthly life. Thus, they will not at first realize that the "Trumpet" was the signal for the Day of Resurrection because they had no expectation whatever that the Day of Resurrection would ever come. As a matter of fact, they used to make fun of this Day as a nonsensical thing.