﴿When﴾ It is permissible for it to be a circumstance for the calamity, and its circumstantial nature does not contradict its causation, meaning: at the time ﴿the messengers came to them﴾ because the long time allows for attributing what occurred in part of it to it. Since the messengers only came with the action at some time, the preposition was included, so he said: ﴿from before them﴾ meaning: from their direction because the first warning is a warning for all who come after him that if he encounters what he encountered, he will receive what he was punished with. ﴿And from behind them﴾ and they are those who came to them because they did not know of their coming. Thus, the 'behind' is a metaphor for concealment, and 'before' is for clarity. There is no doubt that when a person is led to him from his direction and hears it from him, he is more inclined to what he sees with his own eyes. This is because the soul does not yield to what contradicts it except after debate and struggle. So, if time prolongs and others yield to him, the matter becomes easier for them, and the situation becomes lighter for them. Also, the one coming to people only comes to them after their existence and reaching the limit of obligation. So, he is thus coming to them from behind them, meaning: after their existence, or it could be that what is between the hands is he who came to them because they knew of his coming, knowing like one who looks from before him, and what is behind them is what has been hidden from them of those who preceded them. Thus, news of them was not conveyed to them except in ways that could be doubted. Or the meaning is: their messenger came to them, who is manifesting the miracle like all the messengers, with admonition from every side that is hidden from them or becomes clear to them. And he employed every stratagem with every argument until he left them no doubt. Then he clarified that the coming of the messengers negates the worship of other than Allah and restricted worship to Him. He said, manifesting with worship the name that is most deserving of it: 'that' meaning: by saying to them 'do not worship except Allah' meaning: the One who has all the attributes of perfection.

And when this was a place for the listener's longing for their news, the response was by their saying: ﴿They said﴾, meaning: each one of them: ﴿If our Lord had willed﴾, meaning: the One who raised us with the best upbringing and made us among His special ones by what He has bestowed upon us of blessings, to send to us a Messenger ﴿He would have sent down﴾, meaning: to us ﴿angels﴾. So He sent them to us with what He wants from us, but He did not send down angels. He did not will to send a Messenger, so the consequence of what they said was from the exceptional analogy they derived from the contradiction of what follows it, the contradiction of its premise, for they established between the premise and the following one a necessary connection by their claim of their saying: ﴿So we are by what﴾, meaning: because of what, and when they did not deny the absolute nature of their message, they only denied its being from Allah. They built for the unknown their saying, emphasizing the Most High in the translation from them for the address to the unseen, because it is more indicative of their lack of manners: ﴿Were you sent﴾ [meaning]: O Messengers and whoever is in a similar state among humans ﴿with it﴾, meaning: [with] what you claim, especially not with anything you were sent with, like sending down angels as an example ﴿disbelievers﴾, because our analogy has indicated that He, the Most High, did not will to send, so you are not messengers from Him because you are humans, not angels. And they have denied in their analogy which they did not take from reason or transmission, for there is no necessary connection between the will to send to all people or to a nation among them and for the one sent to them to be all angels.