Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:15

"Indeed, the Hour is coming..."

It means: I am on the verge of concealing it, to the point that I would not say "it is coming," due to the intensity of My desire to hide it. Were it not for the grace (luṭf) found in informing [mankind] of its arrival while keeping its time obscured, I would not have informed [anyone] of it at all.

It has been said: The meaning is "I am on the verge of hiding it from Myself." However, there is no evidence in the speech for this omitted phrase, and an omission for which there is no evidence is rejected. What misled those who hold this view is that in the codex (muṣḥaf) of Ubayy, it reads: "I am on the verge of hiding it from Myself." In some codices, it reads: "I am on the verge of hiding it from Myself, so how could I reveal it to you?"

From Abū al-Dardāʾ and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, it is read ukhfīhā (with a fatḥah on the alif), derived from khafāhu (to reveal/uncover). It means: "I am on the verge of revealing it," just as He, the Exalted, says: "The Hour has drawn near" (al-Qamar: 1). It has appeared in some dialects that akhfāhu carries the meaning of khafāhu (to reveal). This is how the verse of Imruʾ al-Qays is interpreted:

If you bury the disease, we shall reveal it, And if you incite war, we shall not sit idle.

Thus, "I am on the verge of ukhfīhā" is susceptible to both meanings.

"...so that every soul may be recompensed for that which it strives." This is connected to the phrase "for that which it strives"—meaning, for its striving.

"So do not let one who does not believe in it and follows his own desire divert you from it, lest you perish."