And when he made this understood, their destruction was made clear, indicating its type by his saying: ﴿And We rained﴾ meaning: stones of sulfur after their cities were uprooted and raised and overturned, until their travelers and those who strayed were stoned by it, because it is the punishment of extermination from one who cannot be made helpless by anything. And he clarified it by limiting the action and its transitive nature with the preposition of elevation, saying: ﴿Upon them﴾ and confirmed that it was from the sky, not from a surface or a mountain or the like, by his saying: ﴿Rain﴾. He pointed to its greatness, removing the ambiguity entirely by what he caused from his saying: ﴿So look how was the end of﴾ meaning: the last of the ﴿criminals﴾. He revealed the place of the implicit statement, linking the ruling to the description of severance for what is rightfully connected, and connecting what is rightfully severed from the gross disobedience, indicating that stoning is the recompense for one who commits this act under its condition; because the ruling revolves around the cause. And the narrative of their story will come in Surah: (Hud) - peace be upon him - after it has passed in Al-Baqarah at: ﴿When his Lord said to him, Submit﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 131] the beginnings of their matter. And this is as the stones were designated for Quraysh - when they resolved to return after their direction from the battle of Uhud from the road - to frighten them from the Prophet ﷺ and his companions according to their claim, as he ﷺ said: "(By the One in Whose Hand is my soul! The stones were designated for them, and if they had returned, they would have been like yesterday's gone.)" But when he ﷺ was a Messenger of mercy, Allah did not decree their return, so they proceeded until many of them embraced Islam afterward. And just as Allah rained stones upon the companions of the elephant in the year of his ﷺ birth as protection for his city by his blessing.