When the Holy Qur’an calls an event “near”, how long does that mean?

The word “near” usually does not name a span of time. It expresses certainty. What is sure to happen is described as if it were already at the door, whether it happens soon or much later.

When an event is said to be only a step or two away, people wonder how long that is. Weeks, months, years? The answer depends on whose steps are meant. A child takes small steps, a giant very large ones. And there are the steps of whole nations, which span generations. You can only interpret steps when you know whom they belong to.

The Holy Qur’an shows this clearly. Many centuries ago it said that the Hour had drawn near. Yet the final end of the world has still not come. Anyone who takes “near” here to mean a short time has a problem. Anyone who takes it to mean certainty does not.

That is how the word is mostly used. In almost every language we say of something certain that it is at the door, that it is already knocking, that it is as good as done. This does not mean it will happen tomorrow. It means it will happen and no one can stop it.

That is why the Holy Qur’an often describes things after the resurrection as if they were already here. A promise of God is so certain that it is as if one were already holding the promised thing in one’s hand. Time disappears behind certainty. The verses above say it plainly. People see something as far off, God sees it as near. Not always, but very often, “near” means exactly this.