Taa-Haa (Taa-Haa)

104. “We know best what they will say when their best in conduct will say: ‘You tarried but a day’.”

The greatness of Hereafter is so much so that, when people attend there, they consider the length of their life in this world as long as half a day, or one day, or at most ten days.

In this regard, the Qur’an, from the tongue of different groups of people, says as follows:

1. Ten days as the verse says:

“You did tarry but ten (days).”1

2. One day, about which the above verse says:

“You tarried but a day.”

3. A part of a day, where the Qur’an says:

“…it will be as though they had not tarried but the latter part of a day or the early part of it.”2

4. Some short moments, for which the guilty shall say:

“…they did not tarry but an hour…”3

5. A little time, about which the Qur’an says:

“…you did not tarry but a little…”4

It seems that this difference of attitudes, due to the length of the lifetime in the world, depends on the amount of insight existed in different persons. In this verse, for example, the Qur’an points to those people who are best in conduct. Such people count the lifetime in this world as much as ‘one day’, while, as the previous verse indicates, the sinners count it ten days.

Of course, it is evident that the limited lifetime in this world in comparison with the unlimited world of Hereafter is little and even less than little. Or, it is not possible to compare a finite and limited thing with an infinite and unlimited one.

Perhaps the secret of this fact that Allah refers the knowledge of the length of their stop in the world to Himself is the same matter. Allah knows best what they say and they imagine that they have tarried ten days in the world, but the best and the most truthful ones of them say that they have not tarried in the world more than one day.

The verse says:

“We know best what they will say when their best in conduct will say: ‘You tarried but a day’.”

To conclude, Allah in one expressive sentence says that He knows best what they say, whether they say it in a low voice or aloud.