Al-Anbiyaa (The Prophets)

37. “(The nature of mortals is such that as if) man has been created of haste; soon (enough) I will show you My signs, so do not ask Me to hasten (them) on.”

38. “And they (the disbelievers) say: When will this promise (be fulfilled) if you are truthful?”

This holy verse points to one of the heinous and irrelevant deeds of those immethodical libertines.

It says:

“(The nature of mortals is such that as if) man has been created of haste;…”

There are various opinions cited upon this sentence, but it is clear that the purpose of ‘man’ here is the whole mankind, (those untrained people, of course, who are out of the realm of the leadership of the Divine leaders).

As it is also testified by the later holy verses, the objective meaning of the Qur’anic term /‘ajal/, here, is ‘haste’ and ‘precipitance’.

The Qur’an in another occurrence says:

“…and man is ever hasty.”1

In fact, the sense of ‘Man has been created of haste’ is an emphasis, which means ‘man’ is so hasty that as if he has been created out of precipitancy and his whole entity has been made up out of it. And, truly, a great deal of common people are such.

They are hasty both in good deeds and evil acts, so that even when they are told if they pollute themselves with blasphemy and sin the Divine punishment will seize them, they say why it does not come soon.

Then, at the end of the verse, it says:

“…soon (enough) I will show you My signs, so do not ask Me to hasten (them) on.”

The Qur’anic phrase ‘My signs’ here may refer to the verses and signs of punishment, calamities and chastisement by means of which the Prophet (S) threatened them. Yet, those empty-minded people repeatedly asked for the afflictions that the Prophet (S) had promised them.

The Qur’an, in this verse, says that they should not haste, because they will visit them soon.

This holy phrase may also refer to those miracles which prove the veracity of the Prophet (S). In this case, the phrase means that if you wait, sufficient miracles will be shown to you.

These two commentaries do not contradict each other, because the disbelievers were hasty for both of them, and, finally, Allah gave both of them to them. Yet, the first commentary seems closer to the concept of the verse and is more appropriate to the later verses.

Again, in the next verse, the Qur’an points to one of their requests that they hastily asked.

It says:

“And they (the disbelievers) say: When will this promise (be fulfilled) if you are truthful?”

They were impatiently waiting for the event of the Hereafter to happen. They were unaware of the fact that, as soon as the Hereafter happens their full helplessness and misfortune begin. But what can be done; the hasty man makes also haste even for his own misfortune and destruction.

The application of the phrase ‘if you are truthful’, which is in the plural form, though the Prophet of Islam (S) was the addressee, is for the reason that they addressed his true followers in this expression, too. They wanted to say that the absence of the Hereafter was the reason for that they all were liars.