And when the breaking of the covenant is the most heinous of things, especially among the Arabs, He said, adding to "So what they were": "And We did not find" meaning: in the world of testimony,

"most of them" meaning: the people. He emphasized the totality by saying: "of a covenant" in accordance with what was with us in the world of the unseen. This is either a reference to the covenant on the day of "Am I not your Lord?" [Al-A'raf: 172] if that is to be taken literally, or to what they do in times of hardship by refraining from sins and making a covenant to be grateful: "If You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful" [Yunus: 22], or to the establishment of proofs by providing reasoning and setting up evidence. Thus, by establishing and clarifying it for the minds, it is as if He took the covenant from those who understand that they should exert effort in contemplation and not exceed what has been made clear to them by sound reasoning.

"And if" meaning: and we,

"found" meaning: we knew in the world of testimony,

"most of them are indeed disobedient" meaning: outside the bounds of the covenants, deviating from what has held them at the limit, entrenched in that according to what we used to know about them in the world of the unseen. And what we have brought forth in the world of testimony is only to establish against them the proof regarding what they are accustomed to among themselves in the course of their customs and the capacities of their minds.