The Quranic text amd Ali’s translation
وَلَا
يَزَالُ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا فِي
مِرْيَةٍ مِّنْهُ
حَتَّى تَأْتِيَهُمُ
السَّاعَةُ
بَغْتَةً...
22: 55. Those who reject Faith will not cease to be in doubt concerning (Revelation) until the Hour (of Judgment) comes suddenly upon them,
C2836. The penalty of deliberately rejecting Faith is that the person doing so closes the channels of Mercy that flow from Allah. He will always be subject to doubts and superstitions, until the time comes when all earthly scales fall from his spiritual eyes. But then there will be no time for Repentance: it will be too late to profit by the guidance of Allah given through Revelation.
...أَوْ يَأْتِيَهُمْ عَذَابُ يَوْمٍ عَقِيمٍ ﴿٥٥﴾
or there comes to them the Penalty of a Day of Disaster.
[[Ruby’s note 22-55 – the last hour coming to all people suddenly – could mean that the last hour is death. Kiamoth is not going to be experienced by everyone except who would be living at that time? Or could all be raised on that day and suddenly everyone faced the day of reckoning?]
Asad’s version
22:54 [al-Hajj, Medina 103]
And [God renders Satan's aspersions null and void] so that they who are endowed with [innate] knowledge might know that this [divine writ] is the truth from thy Sustainer, and that they might believe in it, and that their hearts might humbly submit unto Him. For, behold, God does guide onto a straight way those who have attained to faith –
(22:55)
whereas those who are bent on denying the truth will not cease to be in doubt about Him until the Last Hour comes suddenly upon them and [supreme] suffering befalls them on a Day void of all hope. 70
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56 Al-Waqiah (That Which Must Come To Pass)
Mecca Period
Asad’s version
(56:82) and make it your daily bread [as it were] to call the truth a lie?
(56:83) Why, then, 29 when [the last breath] comes up to the throat [of a dying man], (56:84) the while you are [helplessly] looking on – (56:85) and while We are closer to him than you, although you see [Us] not -:
(56:86) why, then, if [you think that] you are not truly dependent [on Us],
(56:87) can you not cause that [ebbing life) to return - if what you claim is true?
Ali’s version and the Arabic text
وَتَجْعَلُونَ
رِزْقَكُمْ
أَنَّكُمْ
تُكَذِّبُونَ
﴿٨٢﴾
56:82. And have ye made it your livelihood that ye should declare it false?
C5262. The worst indictment of an enemy of Revelation would be that he should make Falsehood a source of filthy lucre for himself, or that he should let his precious life be corrupted by such unholy occupation.
فَلَوْلَا
إِذَا بَلَغَتِ
الْحُلْقُومَ
﴿٨٣﴾
56:83. Then why do ye not (intervene) when (the soul of the dying man) reaches the throat --
C5263. There is a hiatus after "why do ye not?"-and two parenthetical clauses,-after which the clause "why do ye not?" is resumed again in verse 86 below, with its complement in verse 87. It is permissible to the translator to add some such word as "intervene" here, to make the translation run smoothly.
وَأَنتُمْ
حِينَئِذٍ
تَنظُرُونَ
﴿٨٤﴾
56:84. And ye the while (sit) looking on --
C5264. The dying man's friends, relatives, and companions may be sitting round him and quite close to him in his last moments, but Allah is nearer still at all times for He is nearer than the man's own jugular vein (50:16), and one of Allah's own titles is "Ever Near" (34:50).
وَنَحْنُ
أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ
مِنكُمْ وَلَكِن
لَّا تُبْصِرُونَ
﴿٨٥﴾
56:85. But We are nearer to him than ye, and yet see not --
فَلَوْلَا
إِن كُنتُمْ
غَيْرَ مَدِينِينَ
﴿٨٦﴾
86. Then why do you not -- if you are exempt from (future) account --
C5265. These words resume the sentence begun at verse 83 above and interrupted by the two parenthetical clauses in verses 84 and 85. See n. 5263 above.
تَرْجِعُونَهَا
إِن كُنتُمْ
صَادِقِينَ
﴿٨٧﴾
87. Call back the soul, if ye are true (in your claim of Independence)?
C5266. The sentence may now be briefly paraphrased. 'If you disbelieve in Revelation and a future Judgment, and claim to do what you like and be independent of Allah, how is it you cannot call back a dying man's soul to his body when all of you congregate round him at his death-bed? But you are not independent of Judgment. There is a Day of Account, when you will have to be judged by your deeds in this life.'
[[Asad’s note - 29 The elliptic implication is: "If, then, as you claim, you are really independent of any Supreme Power, why do you not ...", etc., thus connecting with verses 57-74. ]]