And when the Exalted informed that He is capable of providing security, salvation, and empowerment alongside the weak, He followed it up with the announcement of His power over fear and destruction alongside strength. This was to encourage them - if they believed - regarding the destruction of their adversaries, and to frighten them - if they persisted - from being treated contrary to their desires. He said in a manifestation of greatness, adding to the meaning of the words: ﴿And how many have We destroyed﴾. It may be that this is a state from the pronoun of 'We empower', meaning: We did with them what We mentioned of blessings alongside their weakness and inability. The state is that We have often destroyed the strong. He indicated the emphasis of the multitude alongside the specification of the indefinite by His saying: ﴿from a village﴾. He indicated the reason for destruction by His saying: ﴿they were ungrateful for their livelihood﴾, meaning: they were arrogant during the time of their abundant and comfortable living. Their condition was like yours in security and the abundance of provision. So when they were ungrateful for their livelihood, We destroyed them. The meaning of their ingratitude towards it is that they exceeded the limits in joy, arrogance, and happiness, until they transgressed it, corrupted it, and denied it, so they did not show gratitude for it. Rather, they acted in receiving it like the bewildered and astonished one, and they did not take care of it properly. Their tolerance for the right of the blessing in it was little, so they transgressed in their indulgence when accompanying it and became arrogant with it. They persisted in error in word and deed, due to what overwhelmed them of luxury, away from binding it, and their tolerance for wealth through it was poor, and the comfort of living in it. They invalidated it with these qualities, and wasted it without any compensation. This is from the saying of the people of language: ingratitude is arrogance and little tolerance for blessings, and astonishment and bewilderment and tyranny with blessings. The action from all is like 'to rejoice', and ingratitude for the truth is to be arrogant about it and not accept it. To be ungrateful for it is like to support it or strike it: to tear it. And the ingratitude is the long noise of the tongue, and the one who persists in error. And to burden him is to impose upon him beyond his capacity, and his blood went wasted due to the break - meaning: wasted. Their ingratitude towards it is that they disobeyed the One who granted them it, so they opposed His command, and arrogance made them forget His mention due to what He gave them.

And when this news caused the soul to long for the effects of these abodes, it caused the indication with a tool of distance towards their dwellings, alerting to their abundance and the ease of reaching them in every place, since they are in a position that can be pointed to and at a distance from their rank in destruction, indicating the totality that preceded it. He said: ﴿So these are their dwellings﴾.

And when the meaning was that they are empty upon their foundations, He reached with His saying: ﴿were not inhabited﴾, meaning: by any inhabitant, whether chosen or compelled. And when the intention was to convey the negation of a little time and much of it, He affirmed the preposition and said: ﴿after them﴾, after a long time of their indulgence in it, and they adorned it, decorated it, and beautified it, and they celebrated in it the young women, and rejoiced in great deeds.

﴿Except﴾ for a few inhabitants ﴿who passed by it for an hour of night or day﴾, then it becomes desolate and lonely like the wilderness, after it had been a place of abundance, with white surfaces and dark spears.

And when these places became, after the destruction, not governed by anyone apparent except Allah, and there was no ruler over them in what the eyes observe except Him, this was a great matter and a serious affair. This is because there is no distinction in it between the great and the insignificant, the small and the large, the sultan and the minister. It indicated its enormity by His saying, repeating for the manifestation of greatness: ﴿And We were﴾ [meaning:] eternally and forever ﴿We﴾ not others ﴿the inheritors﴾. No one has been able to resist us, no matter how great, nor has there been any delay in our will for a moment, no matter how massive. So, I wish I knew! Where are those tyrants and how have their houses become empty, and their palaces desolate? The arrogant have been annihilated, by Allah, with cups of calamities filled with the great disasters, and they have been humbled by the deaths of the days, by the power of the Almighty, the All-Knowing. So woe to whoever does not take heed from their days, and is not deterred from similar sins.