And when all of this was with the ability to move; He said: ﴿And if We willed﴾; meaning: to transform them; ﴿We would have transformed them﴾; meaning: We would have turned them into inanimate objects; thus, We would have nullified their voluntary movement. And when the intended purpose was the surprise with these calamities; to show that He - glorified and exalted is He - has no burden upon Him in any of that; He said: ﴿in their place﴾; meaning: the place they were in before the transformation; each one of them occupying it by sitting; or standing; or otherwise; in that specific location; before they moved from it; and this is the meaning of the reading of Shu'bah from Asim: 'their places'; and it indicates that the intended meaning is the transformation into the states of inanimate objects; by what resulted from that of His saying: ﴿So they could not﴾; meaning: by themselves; (p-160) with a type of treatment; ﴿moving﴾; meaning: movement; towards one of the directions; then He added to the entire conditional statement His saying: ﴿and they will not return﴾; meaning: they will not have a return to their state that was before the transformation in any way; indicating that these matters are true; not as they say that they are illusions; and magic; rather, their stability cannot be lifted by any of the creation; nor can it be changed by any type of change of this intended meaning; if Allah wills; and if it were said: 'and no return' - as some of them said that this is the intended meaning -; it would not convey this precious meaning.