And when He, glorified and exalted is He, mentioned at the beginning of the Surah their denial of His ability to acknowledge what denies them in that denial, He then consoled and threatened with the denial of the previous nations. He mentioned His power over them and followed it with evidence of the perfection of His power until He concluded by indicating that His power has no end, nor is it confined by a limit, nor can it be counted. This was in response to the people of obstinacy and the innovation of unity in their saying: 'There is nothing more creative than what has been.' He added to what I have decreed after that: 'So the threat is true' [Q: 14] of the destruction of those nations, which is more comprehensive than it, by encompassing all of the past time and indicating the comprehensiveness of power. He said: 'And how many have We destroyed,' meaning: by what We have of greatness. And when the intent was to generalize destruction in all times for all nations, He removed the preposition to clarify the encompassing nature of power, saying: 'before them.' He increased the indication of generalization by affirming it in His saying: 'from a generation,' meaning: a generation that is at the peak of strength. He further clarified the strength by saying: 'they,' meaning: those generations with their outward and inward characteristics, 'were stronger than them,' meaning: than Quraysh, 'in might,' meaning: in strength and taking what they wanted with violence, force, and severity. The omission of the preposition here indicates that everyone who was before Quraysh was stronger than them. And its affirmation in 'the letter' indicates that those mentioned for destruction there, along with the attribute of the mentioned call, some of the destroyed are not all of them. And when He informed, glorified and exalted is He, of their severity, He caused His saying: 'So they dug' to follow, meaning: they caused the digging 'in the land' by opening in it the physical and metaphorical doors and they breached in its regions what no one else could do. They excelled in traveling in the paths, which are the mountain paths and the narrow paths, let alone the wide ones and those in the plains, with their vast intellects, penetrating opinions, and strong natures. They searched for news and informed others of what had not reached them. Each of them was a digger in that; meaning: a sign in it, so it became for him with it merits or boasts. And when the decree was: and they did not escape with the abundance of their digging and the severity from our destruction by the calamities of time and the occurrences of events, the question of every listener turned to what is in that of wonders, severity, horror, and fears, a question of alerting the ignorant and heedless, and a reprimand and rebuke for the obstinate ignorant, with His saying: 'Is there any escape?' meaning: a refuge, a detour, and an escape, even if slight, from Our decree, so that there would be for these a way in responding to Our command.