And when He indicated the punishment of the disbelievers, He established its causes and made it known that they are by His decree. And that His decree does not prevent the rights of punishment, based on what is commonly understood by those with intellect among them. So He said (the Most High): "And when"; meaning: We send the messengers with Our commands and prohibitions. And when We intend to give life to a town with a good life in this world and the Hereafter, We cast into the hearts of its people the compliance with Our commands and the adherence to following Our messengers. And when "We intend"; and Our intention is nothing but truly great. "To destroy"; meaning: by Our greatness, "a town"; in the future time. "We command"; meaning: with the greatness that no one can oppose. "Its affluent ones"; those who have authority and prohibition through sinfulness; meaning: We have led them on by granting them blessings and averting calamities for what they do of sins. This was - being a cause for their arrogance and opposition - like the command to sin. "So they committed sin therein"; after the messenger removed their excuses by conveying the message, as He (the Most High) said: "So when they forgot what they were reminded of" [Al-An'am: 44]; meaning: on the tongues of the messengers -; "We opened upon them the doors of everything" [Al-An'am: 44]; the verse; "And thus We made in every town the great criminals of it to plot therein" [Al-An'am: 123]; and He specified the affluent ones because others are their followers. And because they are the most deserving of gratitude and the first to be punished in disbelief. And it is permissible that He commanded them with Our commands, so they committed sin therein; meaning: the commands to the acts of obedience that it is known for certain that Our commands are by them and not by other than them, for We do not command with immorality. And it has become customary that the affluent are difficult to guide; their souls hardly allow them to become followers after they were leaders. So they disobeyed; and others followed them, for the younger ones are followers of the elders. So they persisted in sin, and We destroyed them. And Ya'qub read: "We commanded"; with the elongation of the hamzah, meaning: We multiplied; from "I commanded something"; and "I appointed it, so it was appointed"; if I multiplied it. And in the hadith: "The best wealth is a well-tended animal and a well-bred horse"; meaning: abundant offspring. And Al-Bukhari narrated in the tafsir from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud - may Allah be pleased with him - who said: "We used to say to the tribe when they became numerous in the pre-Islamic period: The sons of so-and-so commanded"; and the multitude refers to the command, which is the opposite of prohibition. For it is the result of might, which is necessary for abundance. And it is permissible that it is from the conspiracy; meaning: We commanded them with Our commands, but they did not comply. And they commanded us with their commands; meaning: they asked us for what they wanted, so We gave them that as a means of leading them on. So the fulfillment of their desires led them to arrogance, and they committed sin. "So it was due"; meaning: it was obligatory and there is no doubt in its occurrence; "the saying was established against it"; which We threatened them with, on the tongue of the messenger, by the direct involvement of some in sin and the silence of the rest, according to what you commonly understand among you that whoever opposes the obligatory command deserves punishment. "So We destroyed it"; meaning: We utterly destroyed it suddenly, without concern for it. So We made it like a crushed millstone; and its matter was easy for Our greatness. And for this reason, He emphasized; so He said (the Most High): "Destruction."