And when that concluded on this greatest face and the most eloquent and most wise arrangement, and these villages were such that the Arabs recognized them and saw them, He indicated to them, urging them to take heed from them. And since their people were deserving of distance from them and fleeing from them, He expressed them with a tool of distance and said: "Those villages" meaning: the places of the five tribes. It may be that the distance is due to the greatness of what happened to their people from the punishment, and this is supported by His saying, clarifying their state: "We relate to you."

And when the rational person is one who is satisfied with the slightest thing, He made the matter alarming by stating that their news surpasses enumeration, and that what has been related from it is enough for the one who takes heed. He said: "Of their news" meaning: their great, terrifying news that corresponds to reality, piece by piece, as is done by one who follows the trace. And He feminized the pronoun because the sight of the villages themselves has an entry in knowing the news of their people.

And when the situation is one of astonishment at the denial after that clarification, it might be imagined by an imaginer that they were not provided with the clear statement. So Allah, the Exalted, bore witness for the messengers, blessings and peace be upon them, confirming what was said by one of them: "Indeed, a clear proof has come to you," by His saying: "And indeed" meaning: while it is the case that "it has come to them" meaning: the people of the villages because they are the ones specifically intended.

"Their messengers" meaning: those whom We sent to them,

"With clear signs, so" meaning: so it did not result from that due to Our sealing upon their hearts except that they were not "successful" meaning: to believe when it came to them. And He emphasized the negation of their state of belief with the lam and the being, in the most complete affirmation: "By that which" meaning: by that which they "denied" meaning: it. [And omitting it indicates the prohibition from absolute denial and is more suitable for the purpose of the surah].

And when their denial is not exhaustive of the past time, He included the preposition and said: "Previously" meaning: before the coming of the messengers to them or by their denial that occurred [from them] to the messengers regarding what they brought from Allah before the sudden taking, or before the coming of the messengers with the signs. For indeed, when they first came to them, they surprised them with denial, so they passed over the denial of the truth without considering evidence, by the sealing [upon their hearts, so they came to them with miracles and they insisted on that denial and stood firm due to that sealing] along with their privileges. And their arrogance and the severity of their complaints prevented them from believing, lest it be said: that they feared at first regarding what occurred from them of denial, so they were in it without insight, or that they feared secondly what the messengers struck them with of warning, so they entered cowardice regarding what they knew to be falsehood. Thus, this beautification for them was a sealing upon their hearts, as if it were said: Is this astonishment possible for anyone like that? So it was said: Yes, like what We have sealed upon their hearts until they became, with understanding, not benefiting, as if they do not understand, as if they do not hear.

"Thus Allah seals" meaning: the One who encompasses the attributes of pride and the descriptions of majesty with what He makes of the rust due to His greatness.

'Upon the hearts of the disbelievers' means: everyone who covers what Allah has given him of the light of reason with what his soul calls him to from desires, deeply entrenched in the attribute of that, so he leaves the signs of Allah.