And when He concluded the matter of their punishment, He began to explain the punishment of Thamud. He said: ﴿And as for Thamud﴾, they are the people of Salih, blessings and peace be upon him. ﴿We guided them﴾ [meaning]: We made clear to them the path of guidance, that We are capable of resurrection and of all things, and there is no partner for Us. The explanation of this was through the she-camel, which was the utmost clarification. They saw that with their eyes, which are the reason for their insight, to the utmost of seeing. They disliked that because of what it necessitated for those who deviated from the path of their forefathers, and they turned to adhering to the path of their forefathers: ﴿So they preferred blindness﴾, meaning the misguidance that arises from the blindness of sight or insight, or both together, ﴿over guidance﴾, meaning: they produced from actions and sayings what indicates (p-167) their love for that and their seeking of its love. So they became blind and went astray. Al-Qushayri said: It was said that they believed and affirmed, then they apostatized and denied. Thus, they were treated like their brothers in annihilation.

﴿So the punishment seized them﴾, meaning: because of that, it was a seizing of force and humiliation. ﴿The thunderbolt of punishment﴾, and He emphasized its description by making it the essence of humiliation. He said: ﴿the humiliation﴾, meaning: the one of humiliation. Its structure stands in place of what is in humiliation from the form. He knew that the intended meaning is that it is the humiliating and disgraceful. ﴿For what they were﴾, meaning: always ﴿earning﴾, meaning: their continual acquisition of it and their counting it as a benefit. The verse is from the interlocking: it mentioned guidance first as a proof for the omission of misguidance second, and blindness second as a proof for the omission of sight first. Its secret is that He attributed to Him the noblest of actions and ascribed to them what the possessor of the spirit does not accept.