فَتَوَلَّ عَنهُم ۘ يَومَ يَدعُ الدّاعِ إِلىٰ شَيءٍ نُكُرٍ

So turn away from them! The day when the caller calls to a dire thing.

EXEGESIS

Yadʿu (calls) is the truncated form of yadʿū from the root duʿāʾ which means to call, ask, or supplicate. However, some say it could have been used here in the meaning of command.[1] Its active participle, al-dāʿī (caller) is also truncated here (al-dāʿ) and is used as the subject of yadʿu. The nature of this caller is not explained in this verse. 

Exegetes have differed over the syntactical state of the word yawma (the day). Some have said it is an adverb for the verb yakhrūjūn (verse 7) and thus the verses put together would read: they will emerge from the graves whilst it would be the day when the caller calls to a dire thing. Another opinion is that it is an object for an implicit command ‘remember’, and so the verse reads: remember the day when the caller calls to a dire thing.[2] A third opinion states the implicit verb is ‘wait for’.[3]

Nukur (dire) from the verb nakara refers to something that is unknown and upsetting, or that was never conceptualised or expected.[4]

EXPOSITION

When it reached a stage that the stubborn disbelievers turned away from all the signs shown by the Prophet, including the splitting of the moon, and did not take heed of the warnings, the Prophet was asked likewise to turn away from them. Turning away meant that there was no hope in their guidance anymore and even trying was a waste of time. The command to turn away from the deniers is repeated in many verses, such as 4:63, 4:81, 6:106, 7:199, 15:94, 37:174, 37:178, 51:54, and 53:29.

Some have suggested that this turning away of the Prophet is not limited to this world only, but that it is also a command to turn away from them on the Day of Judgement and not intercede for them.[5]

However, such turning away does not mean that the deniers would be left unscathed. Rather, as if warning them, they would be given their recompense on a day when a caller shall call them to a dire thing. What makes it frightening is that they would never have seen anything similar to it.[6] As to what exactly this dire thing is, some have said it refers to the frights of the Day of Judgement.[7] Others say it refers to the hellfire[8] and its punishment.[9] Others have stated it is the occasion of the accounting of deeds.[10]

The verse does not identify who this caller is and exegetes have suggested different possibilities as to who this caller may be: Allah – in light of 17:52,[11] the angel Isrāfīl,[12] the angel Gabriel,[13] or those angels who are in charge of accounting and retribution, in light of the proceeding verses.[14]

Perhaps one of the reasons why the identity of this caller is not mentioned is because the verse wants to emphasise on the calling and the thing to which they are called, rather than focusing on the caller.[15] This is a kind of rhetorical tool to increase fear and threat in the listener.

For other verses that discuss the calling on the Day of Judgement, see 17:52, 20:108, and verse 8 of this chapter.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

Some commentators are of the view that this verse was abrogated by those verses that ordered the Prophet to engage in war with the polytheists. In other words, the order to turn away from them and ignore them was only for a short period of time after which the Prophet was ordered to engage in warfare with them.[16] However, this cannot be a correct view since these commands were applicable in different contexts. Furthermore, the Prophet’s wars were always defensive or pre-emptive, which is not in harmony with this opinion.

[1] Daqaiq, 12/531.
[2] Mizan, 19/57-58.
[3] Mudarrisi, 14/218.
[4] Munyah, 27/187; Mizan, 19/57.
[5] Mudarrisi, 14/218.
[6] Safi, 5/100.
[7] Daqaiq, 12/531.
[8] Abu al-Futuh, 18/216.
[9] Kashif, 7/191.
[10] Mizan, 19/58; Amthal, 17/302.
[11] Furqan, 27/478.
[12] Daqaiq, 12/531; Tabrisi, 9/283.
[13] Zamakhshari, 4/432.
[14] Amthal, 17/303.
[15] Mudarrisi, 14/219.
[16] Alusi, 14/79.