Our word has already gone out to Our servants, the messengers:
they will be the ones helped,
and Our soldiers will be the ones who prevail.
So turn away from them for a time,
and look at them: soon they will see.
Az-Zamakhsharî: “for a time” is a short while, the time of holding back from fighting. As-Suddî said: until Badr.
“Look at them”: at what awaits them. Az-Zamakhsharî: it is certain, and near, as if before your eyes.
“In this,” he adds, “there is consolation for him, and relief.”
Do they seek to hasten Our punishment?
When it comes down in their courtyard, evil is the morning of those who were warned.
Az-Zamakhsharî reads an image: a raid announced, ignored, and one morning camped at their door. Raids came at dawn.
And turn away from them for a time,
and look: soon they will see.
The same order twice. But the second time: “look”, and no “at them”.
Az-Zamakhsharî saw it: repeated, it is “consolation upon consolation”, and the two verbs lose their object.
He sees, and they see, “kinds of joy and kinds of grief that no description can hold”.
Ibn 'Âshûr allows another turning away and another seeing: the conquest of Makkah, perhaps, or the Hereafter.
Hear it: the first look still fixes the enemy; the second, the morning. The enemy has left the sentence.
Glory to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe.
And peace upon the messengers.
And praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Twice, at the end of as-Sâffât: turn away from them for a time, and look. Soon they will see.
The second time, one word is missing. Look at them, then only: look. What changed in between?
Look at them, then look: the Qur'an moves your eyes, from the enemy to the morning.
Tonight, name what you are waiting for from Allah, and end your dua with 37:180-182, as the sûra ends.