And when the answer to the oath is what the purpose of the Surah and its precedents and consequences indicate: 'We will certainly reward the two groups, the allies and the enemies, and We will certainly hold each one accountable for what he has done.' This is indicated by His actions in this world concerning some of the tyrants in the past, and in what He does with the tyrants of those who denied the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. He began with those who were punished with the punishment of Allah on the Day of Resurrection for the beginning in the last of the splitting, by the oath of the deniers, and they are the ones being spoken about. This is expressed in a way that is suitable for supplication, and the truth is a consolation for the believers and a strengthening for them regarding what has happened to their like, and a warning of what has happened to their counterparts: 'Killed' means a curse with the easiest and simplest of all curses, with no success accompanying it. And it has occurred in this world that he truly killed the 'Companions of the Trench,' meaning the great trench, which is the elongated fissure in the earth like a river. It has been narrated that a king from the disbelievers - and it has been narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, that he was from Himyar - from the kings of Yemen, and he was seventy years before the birth of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. Many people believed in his time, so he dug a trench in the earth and set it on fire and presented those who believed to it. Whoever returned from his religion was left, and whoever remained firm - and they were the majority - he cast them into that trench and burned them.

And Imam Abu Ja'far ibn al-Zubayr said: This Surah has come in the context of turning and shifting to inform the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, about what this Surah contains of the story of the Companions of the Trench. And this type has already been mentioned in Surah Al-Mujadila and Surah An-Naba. We have clarified its occurrence in the most significant of Surahs and their texts, and it is the closest between the two Surahs and the clearest.