The Ant
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[27:82]
Now, [as for the deaf and blind of heart –] when the word [of truth] stands revealed against them, We shall bring forth unto them out of the earth a creature which will tell them that mankind had no real faith in Our messages.

---

* v.82 : Lit., “comes to pass against them” – i.e., when the truth becomes obvious to them against all their expectations, and thus confounds them utterly: an allusion to the approach of the Last Hour, Resurrection and God’s Judgment, all of which they were wont to regard as “fables of ancient times” (cf. verses 67-68 above). Alternatively, the phrase idhā waqa‘a al-qawl ‘alayhim may be understood as “when the sentence [of doom] is passed on them,” i.e., at the approach of the Last Hour, when it will be too late for repentance.
* The “creature brought forth out of the earth” is apparently an allegory of man’s “earthly” outlook on life – in other words, the soul-destroying materialism characteristic of the time preceding the Last Hour. This “creature” parabolically “tells” men that their submergence in exclusively materialistic values – and, hence, their approaching self-destruction – is an outcome of their lack of belief in God. (See also 7:175-176 and the corresponding note 141.)