They will then say: “We believe in it”;1 but whence can they attain it from so far-off a place?2
Footnotes
[1]Qira’at: Abu ʻAmr, Abu Jaʻfar and Yaʻqub read it as: “. . . and have promised you by the right . . .”
[2]Qira’at: Hamza, Al-Kesa’i and Khalaf read it as: “I have surely saved you . . .”
[3]
That is, “They should have believed when they lived in the world; they have come a long way away from it. After having arrived in the next world how can they get a chance to repent and believe?”
[4]
“We do believe (now) in it”: “We believe in the message presented by the Messenger in the world.”