And when He invalidated their doubts and concluded from His attributes what necessitates seizing those who oppose Him, He said, referring to ﴿And if you could see when the wrongdoers﴾ [Saba: 31] ﴿And if you could see﴾ means that there would be a vision from you ﴿when they are terrified﴾ meaning they will be terrified by Our seizing in this world and the Hereafter. However, He expressed it in the past tense, and likewise in the actions that follow this, because what Allah does in the future is like what has already occurred and existed for its realization. ﴿So﴾ means that the cause of that terror is that there is no ﴿escape﴾ for them from Us, for they are in Our grasp. You would certainly see a terrifying matter and a dreadful affair. And He belittled their matter by using the passive form, saying: ﴿And they were seized﴾ meaning at the time of terror from all whom We command to seize them, whether it was before death or after it. And since proximity makes it easy to take what is intended to be taken, He said: ﴿from a near place﴾ meaning a seizing that is nothing easier than it, for the Seizer, glorified is He, is capable, and there is no distance between Him and anything. Rather, He is closer to him than his own self.