Tafsir of Al-Ahqaf 46:23

If you ask: How does His saying, "The knowledge is only with Allah," correspond as an answer to their saying, "Bring us what you promise us"?

I say: It corresponds because their statement was an act of hastening the punishment. Do you not see His saying, "Rather, it is that which you sought to hasten"? (Al-Ahqaf: 24).

He said to them: I have no knowledge of the time when your punishment would be wise and correct; that knowledge is only with Allah. How, then, can I be expected to bring you His punishment at a hasty time that you yourselves propose?

The meaning of "and I convey to you what I was sent with"—and it is also read with the light form (wa-uballighukum)—is: That which is my affair and my condition is to convey to you what I was sent with of warning, intimidation, and turning you away from what exposes you to the wrath of Allah, to the best of my ability. But you are ignorant; you do not know that messengers were not sent except as warners, not as those who propose [the timing of punishment], nor as those who ask for anything other than what they have been permitted to ask for.

"And when they saw it as a cloud approaching their valleys, they said, 'This is a cloud bringing us rain!' Rather, it is that which you sought to hasten: a wind within which is a painful punishment, destroying everything by the command of its Lord. And they became such that nothing could be seen except their dwellings. Thus do We recompense the criminal people."