11يَغشَى النّاسَ ۖ هٰذا عَذابٌ أَليمٌAli UnalWhich will engulf the people (causing them to exclaim): “This is a painful punishment.1When the Makkan polytheists obstinately insisted on their polytheism and cruel treatment of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the believers, he prayed to God to help him by sending something like the drought that had afflicted the Egyptians during the time of the Prophet Joseph, upon him be peace, so that they might come to belief. God accepted his prayer, and a severe drought and hunger overtook the Makkans. Because of this, they felt as if the sky was full of smoke or mist. As stated in certain Prophetic Traditions, the smoke also refers to another punishment of God that will afflict nearly all the unbelieving people and make the believers feel as if they have caught influenza toward the end of time, and this will be a sign of the approach of the Last Hour. So, too, it may indicate the “smoke” of philosophical and scientific materialism that has engulfed many people in the world and, to some extent, affected the believers also; or it may signify the “smoke” produced by modern weaponry and the side-effects of world wars; or similar punishments that will manifest themselves in the future.