Tafsir of Al-`Ankabut 29:53

"And they urge you to hasten the punishment. And if it were not..."

Their urging of the punishment was an act of mockery and denial on their part. It was al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith who said: "O Allah, if this is indeed the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky," just as the Companions of the Thicket said: "Then cause to fall upon us fragments from the sky."

"And if it were not for a specified term"

Which Allah has decreed and clarified in the Preserved Tablet regarding their punishment, and for which wisdom necessitated a delay until that specified term, "the punishment would have come to them" immediately.

The "term" refers to the Hereafter, based on the narration that Allah promised His Messenger (ﷺ) that He would not punish his people, nor would He eradicate them, but would delay their punishment until the Day of Resurrection. It is also said: it refers to the Day of Badr. Or, it refers to the time of their natural deaths.

"It would have encompassed them"

Meaning: It will encompass them "on the day the punishment covers them." Or, it is already encompassing them in this world, because the sins that necessitate it encompass them. Or, because it is their inevitable destination and return, so it is as if it is currently encompassing them.

In this interpretation, "on the day the punishment covers them" is in the accusative case due to an implied verb—meaning: "On the day the punishment covers them, such and such will happen."

"From above them and from beneath their feet"

This is like His saying: "They will have canopies of fire above them and canopies of fire below them" (al-Zumar: 16).

"And He will say"

(Read with both the nūn and the yā’): "Taste what you used to do"—meaning: the recompense for your deeds.

"O My servants who have believed, indeed My earth is spacious, so worship Me."