And when the listener longed for their response to this wisdom, he was answered by His saying, "They said," meaning: denying him, "Have you come to us," meaning: O Hud, "to turn us away from our gods," so that we do not worship them and do not regard them. And since the meaning of denial is negation, the meaning was: We will not turn away from them. They caused their saying, "So bring us what you promise us," to be a mockery of the warning. And since that meaning was a denial of him, they made it clearer by their saying, expressing with a tool of doubt, indicating that his truthfulness in that is of the nature of impossibility: "If you are," meaning: as it is said about you. A fixed state, "of the truthful ones" in that you are a messenger from Allah and that He will bring us what you fear for us of punishment if we persist.