30 Ar-Rum (The Byzantines)

Mecca Period [6-7 years before Hijra]

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(30:53) just as thou canst not lead the blind [of heart] out of their error: none canst thou make hear [thy call] save such as [are willing to] believe in Our messages, and thus surrender themselves unto Us. 47

30:54 IT IS GOD who creates you [all in a state] of weakness, and then, after weakness, ordains strength [for you], and then, after [a period of] strength, ordains [old-age] weakness and grey hair. 48 He creates what He wills; and He alone is all-knowing, infinite in His power.

30:55 [He it is who will cause you to die, and in time will resurrect you.] 4 ' And when the Last Hour dawns, those who had been lost in sin will swear that they had not tarried [on earth] longer than an hour: thus were they wont to delude themselves [all their lives] ! 50

[[Asad’s note -

50 The illusory character of man's earthbound concept of "time" is brought out in the Quran in several places. In the above context stress is laid, firstly, on the relativity of this concept - i.e., on the infinitesimal shortness of our life on earth as compared with the timeless duration of life in the hereafter (cf, for instance, 10:45 or 17:52) - and, secondly, on the resurrected sinners' self-deluding excuse that their life on earth had been too short to allow them to realize their errors and mend their ways. It is to this second aspect of the problem that the Qur'an alludes in the "words, "thus were they wont to delude themselves" (lit., "to be turned away", i.e.,

from the truth). For an explanation of the verb yu'fikun, see surah 5, note 90. ]]