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Lit., "its indications have already come": a reference to the many Qur'anic predictions of its inevitability, as well as to the evidence, accessible to every unprejudiced mind, of the temporal finality of all creation.
I.e., "of what benefit will be to them, when the Last Hour comes, their dawning awareness of having sinned, and their belated repentance?"
The coming of Muḥammad (ﷺ) is one of the signs of the Hour.
Cf. xliii. 66, and n. 4665.
The sands of time are always running, and when a wrong is done, the time for its punishment is approaching every moment. No one should therefore wait. The time for repentance is Now at any given time. When the punishment comes, it is too late for repentance, and all admonition would be useless. Looking to the particular time when this Sura was revealed, viz., about a year after the Hijrat, already there were Signs that the plans of the Pagans to crush Islam were crumbling to pieces. The Hijrat showed how much good-will there was in Madinah for the holy Prophet of Allah, and how many people from Makkah adhered to him, The battle of Badr showed that they could hold their own against odds of three to one.