Tafsir of Ad-Dukhan 44:59

(So watch for the day the heaven brings...) etc. (Indeed, they are watching), meaning: they are waiting for what will befall you, just as they said: "We await for him the misfortune of time." It has been said: its meaning is "they are watching for what will befall them," as a form of mockery. Another opinion is that it is a mushakalah (stylistic correspondence), and the meaning is that they are being brought to face the punishment. In the verse, there is a promise to him—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—that is not hidden. It has also been said that it contains a command to abandon them, and that this was abrogated by the Verse of the Sword, so do not be heedless.

Regarding the allusions (isharat) in these verses: What they mentioned concerning His saying, "And We had already tried before them the people of Pharaoh," to the end of the story—applying it to what is within the selves—is something known from what we have mentioned in the chapter on Isharah in this book more than once, so we shall not lengthen it here.

They said regarding His saying, "And We did not create the heavens and earth and that between them in play. We did not create them except in truth": it is an allusion to Oneness (al-wahdah), similar to His saying—Exalted be He—"We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth." Some of them expressed this more clearly, saying: "The Truth" (al-Haqq) is He—Exalted and Majestic be He—and the letter ba is for causality (sababiyyah); meaning, We did not create them except for the reason that they be a mirror for the manifestation of the Truth, Majestic is He.

As for those among them who considered the ba to be for accompaniment (mulabasah), they recited:

The glass grew thin and the wine grew clear; So they resembled one another and the matter became confused, As if there were wine and no cup, and as if there were a cup and no wine.

Language is constrained, the reality lies beyond the intellect, and silence is safer.

They said regarding the Zaqqum tree: It is the tree of greed and love for the world, which appears on the Day of Resurrection in the worst state and foulest taste.

They said regarding "the first death": It is what occurs in this world by killing the self with the sword of struggle (mujahadah) in the Greater Jihad, which is what is referred to by the saying, "Die before you die." Whoever dies that death attains the good life, which is not mingled with any impurity of bodily or spiritual pain; that is the great attainment. And Allah says the Truth, and He, Glory be to Him, guides to the path.