Surah 25. Al-Furqan, Ayah 12

Lit., "When it shall see them from a far-off place": a metaphorical allusion, it would seem, to the moment of their death on earth. As in many other instances, we are given here a subtle verbal hint of the allegorical nature of the Qur'anic descriptions of conditions in the life to come by a rhetorical "transfer" of man's faculty of seeing to the object of his seeing: a usage which Zamakhshari explicitly characterizes as metaphorical ('ala sabil al-majaz).

For zafir, a deep emission of breath or a sigh, see n. 1607 to xi. 106. Here the Fire is personified. It is raging with hunger and fury, and as soon as it sees them from ever so far, it emits a sigh of desire. Till then they had not realised their full danger. Now, just as their heart begins to tremble with terror, they are bound together-like with like,-and cast into the roaring flames!