Surah 70. Al-Ma'arij, Ayah 4

For my rendering of ruh as "inspiration", see surah {16}, note [2]. The "ascent" of the angels and of all inspiration may be understood in the same sense as the frequently-occurring phrase "all things go back to God [as their source]" (Razi).

The very concept of "time" is meaningless in relation to God, who is timeless and infinite: cf. note [63] on the last sentence of 22:47 - "in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning": in other words, a day, or an aeon, or a thousand years, or fifty thousand years are alike to Him, having an apparent reality only within the created world and none with the Creator. And since in the hereafter time will cease to have a meaning for man as well, it is irrelevant to ask as to "when" the evildoers will be chastised and the righteous given their due.

 The holy spirit is the angel Gabriel.

 Judgment Day will seem like 50 000 years for a disbeliever, but it will seem like a very short period for a believer. The Prophet (ﷺ) is reported in a ḥadîth collected by Imâm Aḥmed to have said that, for the believer, this long period will be like the time they took to perform a single prayer in the world.

Ruh: "The Spirit". Cf. lxxviii. 38, "the Spirit and the angels"; and xcvii. 4, "the angels and the Spirit". In xvi. 2, we have translated Ruh by "inspiration". Some Commentators understand the angel Gabriel by "the Spirit". But I think a more general meaning is possible, and fits the context better.

Cf. xxxii. 4-5, and notes 3632 and 3634