And when He described their hearts with this denial, which should cause its possessor to dissolve in shame if he neglects it even once, and He indicated the severity of their audacity by repeating it, He followed it with the clarification of their repetition of it in a manner indicating the reason that drives them to say it, which is their saying: "Are we, when we have become decayed bones?" meaning, a state that has become a nature for us, "decayed bones" meaning, they are in the utmost state of decay until they have crumbled. So decay, which is rotting, crumbling, and tearing apart, seems to be imprinted upon it, and it is the hardest part of the body; how about what is besides it from the body? And according to the reading of 'nakhirah', the meaning is that it has become empty of what is in it, so the air is gnawing at it, meaning it makes a sound.