Overall meaning : Say to the unbelieving idolaters, Muhammad, ‘I do not know whether the time on which Allah has warned to inflict His punishment on you is near, or whether my Lord has set for such punishment a distant term. He alone knows what is hidden from His creation and is well beyond their perception, and He does not disclose His knowledge of the unseen to anyone except the messengers whom He has been pleased to choose for His message. He then appoints angels before and behind the messengers to whom He discloses such knowledge, to protect them against the devils, so that He may manifest what He already knows, according to His foreknowledge, that they have fully delivered His messages. He has full knowledge of what the messengers have, and He keeps strict count of all things.’