Tafsir of Yunus 10:7

"Indeed, those who do not expect Our meeting"—this is an elucidation of the state of those who disbelieved in the Resurrection, which was previously alluded to, and who turned away from the clear proofs that demonstrate it. The intent behind "meeting Him—the Exalted is His state—" is either the return to Him through Resurrection or the encounter with the Reckoning. In either case, the shift to the pronoun of Majesty contains an intimidation of the matter that is hidden from no one.

"Expectation" (al-raja') is applied to the anticipation of good, like hope (al-amal), to fear and the anticipation of evil, and to anticipation in an absolute sense. In the first case, it is literal, while in the latter two, it is metaphorical. Some accomplished scholars have chosen the final, metaphorical meaning, which encompasses both hope and fear. Thus, the meaning is: They do not anticipate the return to Us, nor the encounter with Our Reckoning, which leads either to a good reward or an evil penalty; hence, they neither hope for the former nor fear the latter.

Pointing to their lack of hope is His saying—Exalted be He—: "And are satisfied with the worldly life," for it signifies a preference for the lower, base thing over the higher, precious one. Pointing to their lack of fear is His saying—Mighty and Majestic be He—: "And are content with it," for the intent is that they settled into it with the tranquility of one who finds no rest elsewhere, feeling secure from the intrusion of disturbing events, and never letting that which would distress them of the Punishment cross their minds.

It has been permitted that "expectation" refers to the first meaning, with the phrase containing an elided genitive (mudaf), meaning: They do not hope for the goodness of meeting Us through Resurrection and the vivification of eternal life, and they were satisfied—instead of that and the lofty honors contained within it—with the ephemeral, base worldly life, settling into it while being devoted to it, confining the totality of their ambitions to its pleasures and decorations, with no deterrent to turn them away and no influence to deflect them.

It has also been permitted that "expectation" refers to the second meaning, again with an elided genitive, meaning: They do not fear the evil of meeting Us, which is something that ought to be feared. This has been countered by the fact that the clause "and are satisfied with the worldly life" rejects this, as it signifies what was mentioned previously: abandoning the higher to take the lower. The Imam said: "To interpret 'expectation' as 'fear' is far-fetched, because defining an opposite by its opposite is not permissible." However, it is not hidden that this assertion is subject to refusal, for such usage has appeared in their language, and it was mentioned by Al-Raghib and Imam Al-Marzuqi, who cited as evidence for it the saying of Abu Dhu'ayb:

When the bees stung him, he did not 'expect' (fear) their stings, And he allied with them in a house of honey-making workers.

Al-Raghib explained this by saying that hope and fear are inseparable. As for the objection raised against the Imam that the use of an opposite for its opposite is permissible in ironic metaphor (al-isti'arah al-tahkamiyyah), it is of no weight, for his intention—may Allah the Exalted have mercy on him—is that it is not permissible outside of the aforementioned metaphor, as indicated by his phrase "interpretation without metaphor." Furthermore, it is not permissible to consider this metaphor here, because irony is not intended, as is clear.

From what we have mentioned in the interpretation of the verse, it is known that the particle ba' denotes containerhood (zarfiyyah). It has also been permitted that it denotes causality, in the sense that they settled because of its adornments and decorations. The choice of the past tense in the final two characteristics is to indicate certainty and establishment, just as the choice of the future tense in the first is to signal continuity.

"And those who are of Our signs"—the details of which are in the pages of the cosmos, as some have been alluded to, or Our revealed signs that alert one to use them as evidence, which agree with them in demonstrating the truth of the meeting they do not expect, which is consequential to Resurrection, and the falsehood of what they were satisfied with and felt content within of worldly life—"are heedless." (7) They do not reflect upon them at all, even if they are warned by what they are warned with, because of their immersion in those worldly states that divert them from these signs. The repetition of the relative pronoun (al-ladhina) is to serve as a conduit to this clause, which signals the permanence and continuity of their heedlessness. The conjunction (wa) is for the distinction of the described attribute from the preceding attributes; in this is an alert that they possess both this and that, and that each one is distinct and independent, suitable to be a source for blame and warning.

The statement that this is due to the distinction of the two descriptions, and an alert that the warning is for the combination of being completely mindless of the signs while being immersed in desires—such that the Hereafter does not cross their minds at all—is of no value. This is because its apparent meaning implies that neither of the two individually necessitates the warning, but rather the combination does, and this is as you see. To interpret it as referring to two different groups—the first being those who denied the Resurrection and desired only the worldly life, and the second being those whose love for the immediate life distracted them from contemplating the eventual life and preparing for it, like the People of the Book whose love of the world and status distracted them from faith and preparation for the Hereafter—is extremely far-fetched in this context.