And when this should be a cause for the belief which is the cause of mercy, it was made clear that it was only a cause for them of punishment, and for him and for whoever followed him, salvation. So he began with the believers, showing concern for their affair by saying: ﴿So We saved him﴾, meaning: by what we have of greatness, a swift salvation that We extracted them from that punishment like extracting a hair from dough. ﴿And those who were with him﴾, meaning: in obedience. And he indicated that nothing is obligatory upon Allah by saying: ﴿By mercy﴾, meaning: with honor and protection ﴿from Us﴾, meaning: not by action or otherwise.

And when he prioritized the salvation, showing concern for it, he followed it with their state, saying, informing that his taking them was not like the taking of kings who are incapable of thorough pursuit, so the last of the armies and the stragglers of the soldiers and followers escape. ﴿And We cut off﴾ their last, meaning: their end. This was the original, but he explicitly stated the intended meaning and clarified the reason for taking them, saying: ﴿Last﴾, meaning: end, meaning: We eradicated them and made that eradication a miracle for Hud - blessings and peace be upon him - ﴿Who denied Our signs﴾, meaning: and did not regard their greatness in relation to Us. And His saying: ﴿And they were not﴾, meaning: in creation and nature ﴿believers﴾, is connected to the relative clause of 'those who' which is: ﴿Denied Our signs﴾ [Al-A'raf: 64] and it serves as a reason for their taking, indicating that no righteousness would come from them, as He concluded the story of Noah by saying: ﴿Indeed, they were a people blind﴾ [Al-A'raf: 64], justifying their drowning, meaning: that We cut off their end while they were deserving of that, because they were not receptive to faith due to their extreme stubbornness and adherence to disbelief. The meaning is: and faith was not among their attributes, meaning: they did not believe in the past nor will they believe in the future, so one who believed comes out from them who had denied before his belief, and one who did not believe during his calling to them, and in Allah's knowledge that he will believe. And it is further enhanced that when they began their words by attributing it to foolishness, lying; it was appropriate to conclude the story by reversing the matter upon them so that they would be described with the same thing truthfully by words that clarify that their being attributed with it is the cause of what was done to them. Because faith does not arise except from complete steadfastness, composure, leaving desires, suppressing the whims of the soul, and submitting to clear evidence and manifest proofs. So whoever abandons it while having that is in the utmost folly and lightheadedness and lack of reason. Also, their description of denial in the past does not imply their continuation in denial, so He said - glorified and exalted is He - that to negate the possibility that they believed after the denial and that their taking was only due to the absolute issuance of denial from them, and that they did not hasten to believe before the denial. It is possible that the sentence is a state, and the meaning in every case is: We cut off their end while they were in a state of denial and lack of belief.