Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:158

{Do they wait for anything but...}

{The angels}: The angels of death, or the angels of punishment.

{Or that your Lord should come}: Or that all the signs of your Lord should come, as evidenced by His saying: {Do they wait for anything but that the angels should come to them}. He means the signs of the Resurrection, total destruction, and some of the portents of the Hour, such as the sun rising from the west, and others.

It is narrated from Al-Bara’ ibn ‘Azib: "We were discussing the Hour when the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) appeared to us and said: 'What are you discussing?' We said: 'We are discussing the Hour.' He said: 'It will not be established until you see ten signs before it: the Smoke, the Beast of the Earth, a landslide in the West, a landslide in the East, a landslide in the Arabian Peninsula, the Dajjal, the rising of the sun from the west, Gog and Magog, the descent of ‘Isa (Jesus), and a fire that emerges from Aden.'"

{And had not believed before}: This is an adjective describing the word "soul" (nafs).

{Or earned in its faith some good}: This is a conjunction linked to "believed."

The meaning is that when the portents of the Hour arrive—which are signs that compel and force belief—the time for religious obligation (taklif) passes. At that point, faith will not benefit a soul that had not advanced its faith before the appearance of the signs, nor a soul that had advanced its faith but had not earned any good within that faith.

As you can see, he does not distinguish between the disbelieving soul that believes at a time when faith is no longer accepted, and the soul that believed at the proper time but did not earn good deeds. This is to teach that His saying: {Those who believe and do righteous deeds} (Al-Baqarah: 25) combines two inseparable companions; one should not be detached from the other if its possessor is to succeed and be happy. Otherwise, the result is misery and destruction.

{Say, "Wait; indeed, we are waiting."}: This is a threat.

It is recited: "That the angels should come to them" (an ya’tiyahum) with both the ya and the ta. Ibn Sirin recited: "It will not benefit" (la tanfa‘u) with the ta, because "faith" (al-iman) is attributed to the feminine pronoun (referring to the soul), which is a part of it, similar to saying: "Some of her fingers went" (dhahabat ba‘du asabi‘iha).

{Indeed, those who have divided their religion and become sects - you, [O Muhammad], are not with them in anything. Their affair is only to Allah, then He will inform them about what they used to do.}