So when he finished with their discussions, and what followed it from what he clarified therein that nothing would avail them from His might, he struck for them a parable and said: "The parable" is borrowed here for the quality that has strangeness. "Those who disbelieved" are represented as one who intended a matter, then did not look to himself in the conduct towards it, but was deceived by one who led him astray from the path. So he was distanced far away until he reached valleys where it is not possible to remain, nor can he return from them, and thus he perished in loss.

And when the distinction between man and non-existence is only by action, he mentioned what he knew of it that the parable is for their actions in response to one who might have said: What is their like? So he said: "Their actions," meaning the good deeds they used to perform in the world such as maintaining ties, freeing captives, and generosity, and so forth, on the Day of Judgment. It is permissible that it may be a second subject, as Al-Hufay and Ibn 'Atiyyah said. Its subject and its news are the news of the first subject, and it does not require a connector because it is the essence of the parable which we mean by the quality. "Like ashes" is what has been crushed by burning to the extent of dust. "The wind blew strongly against it" means it hastened in movement despite the great force; and the wind is a thin body fixed in the air whose nature is to blow. There are five winds: North, South, East, West, and the Nakhb. "On a stormy day" means a day of strong wind, so it scattered it in every direction, and they became in a state where "they could not" mean on the Day of Judgment; and when the matter here is scrutinizing the actions, he preceded his saying: "From what they earned" in the world from their actions on that day "on anything" but rather it went as scattered dust for being built on no foundation. Thus it was established by that that those who disbelieved in their Lord and preferred the worldly life over the Hereafter are in far misguidance, rather "that" meaning the severe and disgraceful matter "is" [especially] "the far misguidance" which its possessor cannot remedy.