Those who disbelieved are driven to Hell in groups, until, when they come to it, its gates are opened.
First scene: hattâ idhâ jâ'ûhâ, until, when they come to it. And the gates open.
Until, when he comes to Us, he says: “If only between me and you were the distance of the two easts! What a wretched companion!”
Second scene. He speaks to the devil made his companion (43:36). Hattâ idhâ jâ'anâ: until, when he comes to Us.
And the Day the enemies of Allah are gathered to the Fire, driven in rows,
until, when they come to it, their hearing, their eyes and their skins testify against them of what they used to do.
Third scene, and a longer opening: hattâ idhâ mâ jâ'ûhâ. One word more, mâ, between “when” and “they come”.
In the whole Qur'an, “hattâ idhâ jâ'ûhâ” comes twice: the Fire in 39:71, the Garden in 39:73. With mâ: once, here.
Grammar calls this mâ an added word, mâ zâ'ida. Take it out, the sentence still stands. It is there to stress.
Az-Zamakhsharî: it stresses that the moment they come to the Fire cannot be other than the moment of the testimony.
Ibn 'Âshûr: mâ after idhâ strengthens the condition. When they come, then, without fail, the body speaks.
And they say to their skins: “Why did you testify against us?”
They say: “Allah made us speak, He who makes all things speak. He created you the first time, and to Him you return.”
Ibn 'Âshûr: hearing, which received the call; the eyes, which saw the signs; the skin, which covers the whole body.
The Prophet ﷺ laughed one day and told why: on that Day a servant says to his Lord: “No witness against me but myself.”
Then his mouth is sealed, and his limbs are told: speak. And they speak of his deeds.
And you were not hiding yourselves lest your hearing, your eyes and your skins testify against you,
but you thought that Allah did not know much of what you did.
Ibn Mas'ûd tells of three men near the Ka'ba. One said: “Do you think Allah hears what we say?”
Another: “If we speak loud, not if we whisper.” The third: “Then He hears the whisper too.” Then 41:22 came down.
Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart: about all of those you will be questioned.
Three verses of the Qur'an open the same way: “Until, when they come…”
In one of them, a single word is added. A word no translation shows.
Your ears, your eyes, your skin: witnesses that go everywhere with you.
Tonight, name one thing you will not let your eyes or your ears do tomorrow.