"Bring me iron ore." Until he leveled between the two walls, he said, "Blow," until he made it a furnace, he said, "Bring me tar so I can pour it over."
Translation endnotes
[18:94-99] Because of the link with the end of the world, the verses can be understood as prophetic narratives of future events, rather than historical information. The Quran occasionally uses the past tense as a style of telling future events, to emphasize their inevitability. Can we understand this passage as an international civilization led by a just and peaceful leader that lasted for two generations, and just before the end of the world the two hostile nations will regain their power and attack that civilization?