Tafsir of Al Imran 3:30

"The Day every soul will find..."

"The Day" (Yawm) is in the accusative case (mansūb) governed by "wishes" (tawadd). The pronoun in "between it" (baynahu) refers to the Day, meaning the Day of Resurrection, when every soul finds its good and evil deeds present. It wishes that between it and that Day—which is the time of those deeds—there were a distant span.

It is also permissible for "The Day" to be in the accusative case governed by an implied verb, such as "Remember." In this reading, it refers only to what it has done.

"And what it has done" (wa-mā ʿamilat) is in the nominative case (marfūʿ) as an initial subject (mubtadaʾ), and "wishes" (tawadd) is its predicate (khabar). The meaning is: "As for what it has done of evil, it wishes that the distance between it and that evil were far."

It is not valid for "mā" (in mā ʿamilat) to be conditional (sharṭiyyah) because "tawadd" is in the nominative case. If you ask: "Is it valid for it to be conditional according to the reading of Abdullah [ibn Mas'ud], 'waddat' (past tense)?" I say: There is no dispute regarding its validity, but interpreting it as an initial subject and predicate is more profound in meaning, as it is a narrative of what will occur on that Day, and it is more consistent with the reading of the majority (al-ʿāmmah).

It is also permissible to coordinate "and what it has done" with "what it has done" (the first mention), and for "wishes" to be a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). The meaning is: "The Day you find its deeds present, while it wishes for a distance between it and that Day," or "while its evil deeds are present," as in the Almighty’s saying: "And they found what they did present" (Al-Kahf: 49), meaning written in their scrolls for them to read. Similar to this is: "God has enumerated it, while they forgot it" (Al-Mujadilah: 6).

"The span" (al-amad) is the distance, as in the Almighty’s saying: "Oh, I wish there were between me and you the distance of the two easts" (Az-Zukhruf: 38).

He repeated the saying: "And God warns you of Himself" so that it remains in their minds and they do not become heedless of it.

"And God is Kind to the servants" means that His warning of Himself and His making known His state of knowledge and power is a form of great kindness to the servants. For when they know Him with true knowledge and fear Him, that leads them to seek His pleasure and avoid His wrath.

Al-Hasan said: "It is from His kindness to them that He warns them of Himself."

It is also possible that He intends that, despite being feared for His knowledge and power, He is also hoped for due to the vastness of His mercy, as in the Almighty’s saying: "Indeed, your Lord is possessor of forgiveness and possessor of painful penalty" (Fussilat: 43).