And when He clarified with what has passed what necessitates gathering upon it and returning in every matter to it, and clarified that whoever opposes that is doomed, regardless of who he is; He followed it with what clarifies that this is of the generality and consistency in such a way that it does not specify a time without another time nor a place except for a place. He said, 'As the custom of' (كَدَأْبِ) meaning: the habit of these disbelievers and their condition in which they persisted and remained and trained themselves upon it, as the custom of 'the people of Pharaoh' (آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ) meaning: those whom these Jews are among the most knowledgeable of their conditions.

And when the doomed were for the sake of denying the messengers, some of the people of the past time, He included the preposition and said: 'Before them' (مِن قَبْلِهِمْ), and this is also among the evidence of: 'So you did not kill them' (فَلَمْ تَقْتُلُوهُمْ) [Al-Anfal: 17] because those whom He referred to were destroyed without fighting. Rather, some of them by the wind, some by the shout, some by drowning, and some by the sinking which is drowning in the solid. It is as if He is saying: No one should attribute an action to himself; for there is no difference for Me in the destruction of My enemies between whether their destruction is by being subjected to fighting or otherwise, all is by My action; if it were not for Me, it would not have occurred. And that is a great deterrent for whoever boasts of killing whom Allah has killed at his hands, or disputes in the spoils, and this returns to His saying: 'So that you do not grieve over what has escaped you nor rejoice in what He has given you' (لِكَيْلا تَأْسَوْا عَلى ما فاتَكم ولا تَفْرَحُوا بِما آتاكُمْ) [Al-Hadid: 23]. And in that is an encouragement to practice not to care about anything in which the self has the slightest share so that this becomes a character as is the custom of the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him); he does not attribute any of his virtues except to his Creator unless he is commanded in it by legislation. Rather, he says: Allah killed them, Allah turned them away, Allah granted us victory, Allah is sufficient. So when this becomes a character for those who adhere to it, it leads them to praise the Creator and the created for them as Ka'b ibn Zuhayr (may Allah be pleased with him) said in his praise of them:

'They are not the keys if their spears reach a people, and they are not the ones who flee if they are reached.'

Then He clarified the state in which they resembled those before them by saying: 'They disbelieved in the signs of Allah' (كَفَرُوا بِآياتِ اللَّهِ) meaning: they concealed what their minds' lights indicated to them of the signs of the Most High King and covered them because they did not act upon them and turned away from that which followed them. So their recompense was what resulted from that of His saying: 'So Allah seized them' (فَأخَذَهُمُ اللَّهُ) meaning: the One who has the grasp of pride and the seats of greatness and honor, a seizing of dominance, oppression, and punishment.

'For their sins' (بِذُنُوبِهِمْ) as He seized them, for they dared against the rank of divinity which is belittled before its lofty heights. The eyes' windows are darkened by the brilliance of its rays, and it diminishes by distance from its first levels of strength, and it is cut off by the delusion of approaching its vastness. So the thunderbolts of its awe descended upon them, and the turns of its greatness descended upon them, and they became seen only as their abodes and felt only as their playgrounds and places.

And when he informed about their taking, he explained it by saying: "Indeed, Allah" meaning: the One who has complete encompassing. "Is Strong" meaning: He overcomes everything and nothing overcomes Him, "Severe in punishment."