The proximity of the Day of Judgment (yawm al-dīn) is emphasized in numerous passages in the Qurʾān, especially in the so-called “Meccan” Sūrahs. According to Nicolai Sinai, these eschatological motifs are among the earliest elements of the qurʾānic proclamations (Nicolai Sinai, “The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an,” in Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity: Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th–8th Centuries, ed. Hagit Amirav, Emmanouela Grypeou, and Guy Stroumsa (Leuven: Peeters, 2017), 219–266. See also idem, The Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), 162–169). The Qurʾān gives great weight to this point. The root q-r-b (nearness, closeness, proximity, etc.) appears frequently, as in the verb iqtaraba “to draw near” (Q al-Anbiyāʾ 21:1; al-Qamar 54:1), the adjective qarīb “near, close at hand” (Q al-Aḥzāb 33:63; al-Maʿārij 70:7; al-Nabaʾ 78:40), and the comparative adjective aqrab “nearer, closer” (Q al-Naḥl 16:77). The last of these appears in a context suggesting that the Hour may be closer than the blink of an eye – strong language indeed!

1. This idiom, “the blink of an eye,” is close to a biblical expression (cf. 1 Cor 15:52), although a better translation of the qurʾānic phrase, lamḥi al-baṣar, is “a glance of an eye,” rather than “blink” or “twinkling.” Q al-Maʿārij 70:6 suggests that the text’s audience may have regarded the Day of Judgment to be in the distant future (baʿīd), but v. 7 clarifies that it is very near. It is also possible that the Qurʾān’s audience did not actually express skepticism concerning the Day of Judgment, and the Qurʾān may instead be deploying its own “counter-discourse” (See Mehdi Azaiez, Le contre-discours coranique Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015). Other significant words are the verb radifa “to be very close to, next to, to be the very next thing” (Q al-Naml 27:72) (Arne A. Ambros and Stephan Procházka, A Concise Dictionary of Koranic Arabic (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004), 111), the active participle with emphatic particle la-wāqiʿ “[it] will surely come to pass” (Q al-Ṭūr 52:7; al-Naml 27:7), and the root ʾ-z-f “to draw near, to approach, be imminent,” (e.g. azifat al-āzifah, Q al-Najm 53:57; al-Ghāfir 40:18), all attempts to inspire apocalyptic anxiety.
2. Classical exegetes approached this eschatological material (imminent apocalypse) from a different perspective….
3. Exegetes and Eschatological Language
4. Muqātil b. Sulaymān (d. 150/767) states that the ʿadhāb qarīb in Q al-Nabaʾ 78:40, the final verse in the Sūrah, refers to the killing (al-qatl) at Badr and the destruction of previous nations. He explains that the Qurʾān uses the word “qarīb” because these punishments were closer than the Last Day (“qāla qarīban li-annahā aqrab min al-ākhira”) (Muqātil b. Sulaymān al-Balkhī, Tafsīr Muqātil b. Sulaymān, ed. Aḥmad Farīd, 3 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2003), 3:444). He isolates this verse from the rest of the Sūrah, which clearly describes the Day of Resurrection. Abū Jaʿfar b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. ca. 310/923), referring to Q al-Maʿārij 70:6–7, says that the “associators” (mushrikūn) of Mecca believed that judgment was “far off” (baʿīd) because they did not believe in it. To this the Qurʾān replied that it is “close” because “everything that is coming is close” (wa-kullu mā huwa ātin qarīb) (Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī al-musammā jāmiʿ al-bayān fī taʾwīl al-Qurʾān, 12 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1992), 12:228–229).

1. Al-Ṭabarī occasionally identifies the person against whom a particular threat was aimed. For example, he identifies Q al-Qiyāmah 75:34–35 with Abū Jahl (Ibid., 12:351). Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) comments tersely that Q al-Nabaʾ 78:40 emphasizes that the Day of Resurrection is inevitably coming (Abūʾl-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm, 8 vols. in 4 (Beirut: al-Kitāb alʿĀlamī li-l-nashr, 2012), 8:249). Tafsīr Jalālayn (by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī, d. 864/1459, and his student, the well-known Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, d. 911/1505) explains that much of the eschatological material is directed specifically at the “associators” of Mecca, informing them of the coming military victories of the Muslim community. This is the case, for example, with Q al-Anbiyāʾ 21:1 and Q al-Nabaʾ 78:40 (Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, trans. Feras Hamza (Amman, Jordan: Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2007), 353, 719. Hereafter, “al-Jalālayn”). The two Jalāls also relate that Q al-Mursalāt 77:7–16 refer to the destruction of the Meccans and that the phrase radifa lakum in Q al-Naml 27:71–72 refers to the Battle of Badr (Ibid., 712–713, 438).
2. Ad Q al-Anbiyāʾ 21:1, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209), in his Tafsīr Mafatīḥ al-Ghayb, divides his discussion into six perspectives or questions (sg. masʾalah), two of which are relevant here. Why does the Qurʾān say that the reckoning “was drawing near” when approximately 600 years had passed without Judgment Day arriving? He offers three perspectives (wujūh) or possible solutions (Tariq Jaffer, “Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s System of Inquiry,” in Aims, Methods and Contexts of Qur’anic Exegesis (2nd/8th– 9th/15th C.), ed. Karen Bauer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 241–261).

1. • (1) First, he notes that “nearness” here does not refer to time as it is experienced by humankind, but to God’s vantage point vis-à-vis time (citing Q al-Ḥajj 22:47 in support of this position) (Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Rāzī, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr aw Mafatīḥ al-ghayb, 32 vols. in 16 (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah, 1990), 22:121).
   • (2) Second, he notes, citing poetry, that all times are “short” if a person measures time with a proper perspective.
   • (3) Third, he constructs a hypothetical situation in which someone receives a year-long term for something, such as a contract. After one month has passed, this person would not say that the term is almost up or “near.” This is because more time remained on the term (eleven months) than the time that had already passed (one month). However, one might say “near” when more time had passed than remained. Thus, the Qurʾān says “near” because less time remained between the time of the proclamation of this verse and the Day of Resurrection than had passed before it (Ibid., 22:121–122). In all three instances, al-Rāzī avoids the implication that the Qurʾān was suggesting an imminent end to history.
2. In another “question” about this passage, al-Rāzī comments that God revealed Q al-Anbiyāʾ 21:1 for the benefit of those who had religious obligations so that they might abandon sinful behavior and be on guard. For the fifth perspective, he adds that God refers to the “Day of Resurrection” as “their reckoning (ḥisābuhum)” in order to inspire fear of its arrival. In these instances, al-Rāzī emphasizes the rhetorical impact of the Qurʾān’s eschatological language, thereby anticipating my argument below. However, in his commentary on other verses, such as Q al-Naml 27:71–72, al-Rāzī, like earlier exegetes, dismisses their apocalyptic implications by linking the revelation with the Battle of Badr, i.e., by historicizing the revelation (Ibid., 24:184).
3. These verses suggest that the end is nigh and that people should stop asking frivolous questions and repent while the Prophet and his followers await vindication. Eschatological statements similar to Q al-Sajdah 32:30 (e.g., Q al-Anʿām 6:158) emphasize the inefficacy of belief in the Last Day (act now!) and urge the audience to await its arrival. Indeed, the command “wait,” wa-ntaẓir, adds weight to the threat of the impending Last Day. However, this urgency need not imply that the Qurʾān is foretelling the arrival of Judgment Day within the lifetime of its audience. As I will argue in the following section, the Qurʾān is interested in the audience’s reaction to its eschatological warnings, not in predicting when this might take place. We find a striking parallel in Syriac Christian eschatological homilies, which also are more concerned with eliciting a response than in predicting the precise timing of the eschaton.

1. Hyperbolic Eschatology and Apocalyptic as Polemic
2. We should take seriously the emphaticness of the Qurʾān’s eschatological message, while recognizing that the Qurʾān employs a hyperbolic eschatology (The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology, ed. John Webster, Kathryn Tanner, and Iain Torrance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 306–322). In other words, the text’s emphasis on the temporal proximity of the Day of Judgment is part of its rhetoric. The Qurʾān is less concerned with historicizing the Reckoning (and indeed, often reiterates that this knowledge is with God alone, e.g., Q al-Aʿrāf 7:187; Luqmān 31:34; al-Zukhruf 43:85), than with alarming its audience and facilitating acceptance of its message and Messenger. The text employs eschatological language to inspire fear, tarhīb, and to encourage addressees to believe in its revelation. The Qurʾān employs phrases such as azifat al-āzifah and radifa lakum to instill auriophobia – a fear of tomorrow – in those who doubt its message. Torschlusspanik: anxiety or panic that time is running out, often regarding an important opportunity (here, acting to secure one’s place in the afterlife before Judgment Day). It is primarily for the sake of such feelings that the Qurʾān uses such strong eschatological language rather than declaring that the eschaton would arrive in the lifetime of its initial audience. Tor Andrae did in fact hint at this conclusion in remarking that the Prophet “speaks as a messenger whose purpose is to awaken and to grip (aufrütteln und ergreifen will) his listeners” (Andrae, Mohammed, sein Leben und sein Glaube, 44 English: Muhammad: The Man and His Faith, 54).

Gabriel Said Reynolds argues that the Qurʾān often caricatures its opponents to make them appear less reasonable, e.g. by depicting the Trinity as Father, Son, and Mother. He notes that the Qurʾān is “a creative work, a work which purposefully exaggerates and satirizes the views of its opponents in order to refute them more effectively” (Gabriel Said Reynolds, “On the Presentation of Christianity in the Qurʾān and the Many Aspects of Quranic Rhetoric,” Al-Bayān 12 (2014), 42–54, at 47). Reynolds adds that “we should generally be sensitive to [the Qurʾān’s] creative use of rhetorical tools such as irony and hyperbole” (Ibid., 54). We witness an example of satire related to eschatology in Q al-Naml 27:71–72. By exaggerating the proximity of the eschaton, the Qurʾān parodies its opponents’ heedlessness and mocks their apparent indifference to the coming judgment. The Qurʾān is a rhetorically creative text; one need not posit that the Prophet himself thought that the world was ending, or – like some exegetes – that its apocalyptic threats apply only to the Prophet’s opponents in Mecca. The Qurʾān capitalizes upon eschatological anxiety to attract followers. The apocalyptic genre can serve a polemical function: it is a means to argue with opponents and dissuade them from their path, redirecting them to one’s own position. The Qurʾān responds to obstinacy to its message with threats of the Final Reckoning. Indeed, the issuance of eschatological warnings was a deep-rooted literary technique and polemical device in antiquity, and the Qurʾān echoes or appropriates earlier apocalyptic and eschatological motifs for its own theological purposes. This is evident from a comparison with contemporary Syriac Christian religious works.

We find a similar strategy of galvanizing an audience through eschatological language in Syriac homiletic literature. In a sermon attributed to Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373 CE) for example, the author uses hyperbolic eschatology to encourage his audience to repent.

Edmund Beck (ed. and trans.), Des Heiligen Ephraem Des Syrers Sermones III, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium vol. 320 (Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 1972), 12

Like the Qurʾān, Ephrem uses the Semitic root q-r-b (e.g., Q al-Anbiyāʾ 21:1; al-Qamar 54:1; al-Nabaʾ 78:40) to emphasize the nearness of the end of the present world, and he uses “Day” (yawmā) in the sense of the Last Day or Day of Judgment – as in the Hebrew Bible (Isa 2:12, 3:7, 4:2, 5:30), New Testament (Rom 2:16; 1 Thess 5:2; Eph 4:30, 6:13; Phil 1:6, 10, 2:16), and Qu’ran (Q al-Aʿrāf 7:53; al-Naḥl 16:111; al-Ṣaffāt 37:33 (“on that day”); 40:17). Whether or not Ephrem believed that the world was about to end is not the point; the preacher – like the Qurʾān – incites fear of judgment in order to spur his audience to repent. Similar eschatological sermons are attributed to Jacob of Sarug (d. 521 CE), many of which have been collected into one volume and translated into French by Isabelle Isebaert-Cauuet (Jacques de Saroug, La Fin du monde : Homélies eschatologiques, ed. and trans. Isabelle Ise baertCauuet (Paris: Migne, 2005). Isebaert-Cauuet collects eight homilies, which correspond with Paul Bedjan’s numbers 31, 32, 67, 68, 192, 193, 194, and 195). In these homilies, she notes, Jacob frequently emphasizes that the end is near: “it is a speech pronounced urgently, for the end is imminent” (Ibid., 198). Jacob also uses the root q-r-b to argue that the end is nigh (Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug (Homiliae selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis) vol. 1 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006), 510). In another homily (Bedjan, #192), Jacob of Sarug uses this root three times, stating that the end has drawn near (qerbat ḥartā), that the “coming is near (qarībā),” and that the end has approached (Bedjan, 5:849, 850).

Elsewhere Jacob speaks of “the coming which is not far [away] (lā raḥīqā”) from destroying the earth (Bedjan, 5:887 (French: Jacques de Saroug, La Fin du monde, 181). Many other examples could be adduced here (Jacques de Saroug, La Fin du monde, 198). Clearly, it would not suffice to posit that Jacob of Sarug expected the end to arrive in the lifetime of his immediate audience. As Isebaert-Cauuet notes, the reason for his accentuation of this theme is its intended impact on his audience: “Jacob’s discourse has no other raison d’être than its utility, understood as its capacity – by the description of the cataclysm of the Last Day – to bring about conversion and to incite to good those who listen to it. A call to conversion and an exhortation to practice virtue are expressed more than once in our texts.” Jacob of Sarug’s use of eschatological language to spur his audience toward belief anticipates the same strategy in the Qurʾān.

1. Eschatological expectation is a prominent feature in the writings in Aphrahat “the Persian Sage” (d. ca. 345 CE). As Adam Lehto notes, eschatological expectation “pervades the whole of” his Demonstrations (Adam Lehto, The Demonstrations of Aphrahat, the Persian Sage (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 46). In Demonstration 8, “On the Resurrection of the Dead” (d-ḥayat mītē), Aphrahat suggests that the time for the Earth to “birth” its dead (i.e., release the dead who have been buried to be resurrected in new bodies) is drawing near (wa-qreb zban mawlādāh) (Ibid., 224. Syriac: Ioannes Parisot, Aphraatis Sapientis Persae Demonstrationes, vol. 1, Patrologia Syriaca 1.1 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1894), 371). Adding to this sense of immediacy, Aphrahat asserts that one single shout from God will precede the Resurrection (paragraphs 8.13–8.15): “By one word of God [maḥad petgāmā d-alāhā], sent forth through His Christ, all the dead will rise up quickly, in the blink of any eye” (Lehto, The Demonstrations, 229–230 (Syriac: Parisot, Demonstrationes, 387). This statement echoes those verses in the Qurʾān which declare that a single shout or cry (e.g., Q Yā Sīn 36:49, 53) will precede the Resurrection, which will occur in a blink or “twinkling of an eye” (e.g., Q al-Naḥl 16:77; cf. 1 Cor 15:52). In Demonstration 22, Aphrahat likewise emphasizes that death and judgment may take place at any moment, exhorting his audience to nourish their faith and live righteously. The Qurʾān adopts the same rhetorical strategies – and homiletic techniques – to elicit a response from its audience or readers. Such an approach was commonplace in the Kulturkreis of the Late Antique Near East.
2. The Qurʾān’s use of apocalyptic imagery and eschatological threats draws upon and modifies Christian homiletic literature. The Qurʾān never seems to quote the Bible directly and there is no conclusive documentary or textual evidence of an Arabic translation of the Bible in pre-Islamic Arabia.

1. Intertextuality
2. In the Gospels, Jesus issues eschatological forewarnings to incite faithfulness. For example, when Jesus begins his ministry, he proclaims: “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matt 4:17). Elsewhere he says: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Matt 24:44), and “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matt 25:13). According to Paul, the Resurrection will occur in “a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor 15:52, cf. Q al-Naḥl 16:77; al-Qamar 54:50) with the sound of a trumpet, both of which are elements of qurʾānic eschatology (Q al-Anʿām 6:73; al-Kahf 18:99; Ṭā Hā 20:102; al-Zumar 39:68; al-Ḥāqqah 69:13; al-Muddathir 74:8). Paul uses the immediacy of the eschaton to urge his addressees at Thessalonica to be on guard: “For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1Thess 5:2). The Qurʾān shares much of the hyperbolic and imaginative eschatological topoi found in the Book of Revelation: trumpets (Q al-Zumar 39:68; Q Qāf 50:20; cf. Rev 8:6, 13), falling stars (al-Mursalāt 77:8; al-Takwīr 81:2; cf. Rev 6:13), moving mountains (Q al-Raʿd 13:31; al-Kahf 18:47; al-Naml 27:88; al-Ṭūr 52:10; al-Ḥāqqah 69:14; al-Takwīr 81:3; cf. Rev 6:14, 16:20), earthquakes (Q al-Aʿrāf 7:78, 91; Hūd 11:67, 94;92 cf. Rev 11:13), and the sky “rolling up like a scroll” (Q al-Anbiyāʾ 21:104; al-Zumar 39:67; cf. Rev 6:14). (David Brady, “The Book of Revelation and the Qurʼān: Is There a Possible Literary Connection?” Journal of Semitic Studies 23:2 (1978): 216–225, at 219ff. Pace Brady).

Nicolai Sinai has recently argued that (1) eschatology constituted one of the earliest principal themes – if not the earliest core – of the qurʾānic proclamations; (2) qurʾānic eschatology exhibits strong resonances with biblical and Syriac Christian literature; and (3) qurʾānic eschatology is moralistic rather than apocalyptic. He argues regarding the second point. The Qurʾān “exhibits almost no concern with predicting the final chapters of history that would usher in the end of the world,” and it refrains from commenting on the precise timing of the end. Sinai remarks: “The rhetorical effect thus achieved should be credited with a significant role in ensuring that the Qur’anic proclamations proved capable of inspiring the formation of at least a small community of eschatologically minded God-fearers around Muhammad, who would then become the nucleus of the Islamic ummah.” The Qurʾān does not foretell the signs of the end times, it merely warns its audience to be on guard.