And when it was established by this proof His ability to resurrect after death, He turned to His saying: ﴿They cannot bear anything from what they earned﴾ [Ibrahim: 18]. His words clarify that resurrection is easy for Him: ﴿And they will appear﴾, meaning on that day. He expressed it in the past tense, which has occurred and been realized, because the news of kings must be realized due to their power and their independence from lying. So how about the King of kings! In it is a shaking of the soul and its terror that is not present in the expression in the present tense for one who contemplates the meaning with true contemplation. "For Allah" means the Greatest King. ﴿All together﴾, so they were in a place where nothing was hidden from them, as it is customary for them, because there is no cover for them. Indeed, the appearance is the emergence of something from what it was entangled with to where it can be perceived by the senses in itself. And there appeared to them [from Allah] what they had not anticipated of punishment, so their means were cut off. ﴿Then the weak will say﴾, meaning the followers (p-404) from the people of misguidance due to their knowledge that they are in the grip of power with no refuge for them, reproaching their leaders [and rebuking them], confirming His saying, exalted is He: ﴿The allies on that day will be enemies to one another, except for the righteous﴾ [Az-Zukhruf: 67]. ﴿To those who were arrogant﴾, meaning those who sought arrogance and claimed it, so they led them to it until they became arrogant over the messengers and their followers, and they did not have that.

﴿Indeed, we were﴾, meaning a being that is like a nature. ﴿For you a following﴾, meaning followers or people of Tuba, so you were the cause of our misguidance. And it has been the habit of the great ones to push away their followers who assist them in their falsehoods. ﴿So are you able to protect us﴾, meaning to defend us ﴿from the punishment of Allah﴾, meaning the One who has all greatness, whose vengeance cannot be endured. And they conveyed after the partiality with "from" in the diminutive, so they said: ﴿From anything﴾ as if the punishment [was] in need of their taking it, so they would protect it with something other than themselves until it would surpass them if they had repelled it from them. So it was as if it was said: If that is customary for the leaders, what did they say? It was said: ﴿They said﴾, knowing that they have no capacity for any type of action: We cannot protect you at all. Rather, each one is responsible for what he has done. Upon us is the sin of our misguidance in ourselves and our misleading you, and upon you is your misguidance and your defending yourselves against us and strengthening your side against us until we became arrogant (p-405) and drowned in misguidance. And if [Allah] had guided you until you followed the evidence that you heard as we heard it and left us, that would have broken our strength and weakened our might. So perhaps that would have been a cause for our guidance just as ﴿If Allah had guided us﴾, meaning the One who possesses all attributes of perfection. ﴿We would have certainly guided you﴾, so there would be for us a reward for our guidance and our guiding you, and for you a reward for your guidance and your strengthening us in that. But He did not guide us, so we went astray and you were followers for us, and thus we misled you.

And when the cause of their saying this despair was present, they said: "It is the same for us." That is, we and you: "Should we despair?" And despair is the agitation of the soul due to the arrival of what is distressing. "Or should we be patient?" There is no benefit for us in either of them, for the matter is more secure than that. Indeed, "there is no escape for us," which is suitable for the source, time, and place. That is, there is no way to avoid and no removal from the disliked in both estimations. So, nothing remains in the punishment except an increase in the torment due to the bad words and the spread of the blame. And this question is not in its proper place, but what is meant by it is to indicate that their condition is one that should be questioned about and the matter should be repeated in it so that it may be avoided.