84وَيَومَ نَبعَثُ مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ شَهيدًا ثُمَّ لا يُؤذَنُ لِلَّذينَ كَفَروا وَلا هُم يُستَعتَبونَMuhammad AsadBut one Day We shall raise up a witness out of every community,1 whereupon they who were bent on denying the truth will not be allowed to plead [ignorance],2 and neither will they be allowed to make amends.An allusion to the Day of Judgment, when the prophets whom God has called forth within every community - or, in the wider sense of the term ummah, within every civilization or cultural period - will symbolically bear witness to the fact that they had delivered God's message to their people and explained to them the meaning of right and wrong, thus depriving them of any subsequent excuse.According to Zamakhshari, their being "refused permission" to plead is a metonym for their having no valid argument or excuse to proffer. (Cf. also 77:35-36.)