wa-iq'taraba l-waʿdu l-ḥaqu fa-idhā hiya shākhiṣatun abṣāru alladhīna kafarū yāwaylanā qad kunnā fī ghaflatin min hādhā bal kunnā ẓālimīna
Translation
And [when] the true promise [i.e., the resurrection] has approached; then suddenly the eyes of those who disbelieved will be staring [in horror, while they say], "O woe to us; we had been unmindful of this; rather, we were wrongdoers."
Verse 97 of Surah Al-Anbya (21:97), a Meccan surah, is in juz 17, on page 330 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 74 reciters.
Listen to verse 97 of Surah Al-Anbya
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Tafsir of verse 97
Al-Mukhtasar
Their emergence, terror and violence will be a sign of the rising drawing nearer. The disbelievers will be left wide-eyed in horror, saying: Oh my, what a destruction faces us! We were indulged in futility in the world, preoccupied from preparing for this severe day. Rather, we were wrongdoers by disbelieving and committing sins.
when the True Promise42 draws near, the eyes of those who disbelieved will stare in horror, [saying], “Woe to us! We were indeed heedless of this; nay, we were wrongdoers.”
Notes
[42] i.e., the Hereafter.
And the true promise (Day of Resurrection) shall draw near (of fulfillment). Then (when mankind is resurrected from their graves), you shall see the eyes of the disbelievers fixedly staring in horror. (They will say): "Woe to us! We were indeed heedless of this - nay, but we were Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong-doers)."
And the True Promise draweth nigh; then behold them, staring wide (in terror), the eyes of those who disbelieve! (They say): Alas for us! We (lived) in forgetfulness of this. Ah, but we were wrong-doers!
Then will the true promise draw nigh (of fulfilment): then behold! the eyes of the Unbelievers will fixedly stare in horror: "Ah! Woe to us! we were indeed heedless of this; nay, we truly did wrong!"
And the true promise shall draw nigh, then lo! the eyes of those who disbelieved shall be fixedly open: O woe to us! surely we were in a state of heedlessness as to this; nay, we were unjust.
And the True Promise has drawn near; so, only then, do the beholdings of the ones who disbelieved (keep) glazing (i.e., eyesights) over. "O woe to us! We were already in (a state of) heedlessness of this; no indeed, we were unjust."
