His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Say, 'Have you considered, if His punishment came to you by night or by day, what would the criminals be in haste for?" "Then, when it has occurred, will you believe in it now, while you were hastening for it?" "Then it will be said to those who wronged, 'Taste the punishment of eternity. Are you not recompensed except for what you used to earn?" "And they ask you, 'Is it true?' Say, 'Yes, by my Lord, it is true, and you will not cause failure to Him.'" The meaning: Say, 'O you disbelievers who are hastening the punishment of Allah, exalted and majestic is He, "Have you considered if His punishment came to you at night during your sleep?" It is said: The people attacked the people when they struck them at night with war or something similar. "Or by day"; do you have any protection from it or any strength against it? So what are you hastening for, while you have no power against it? And "what" is the beginning, and "that" is its news. It is correct that "what" can be in the position of a single noun in the state of raising with the beginning, and its news is the sentence that follows it. Abu Ali weakened this and said: It is only permissible on the condition of implying something in "hastening" and omitting it, as he said: "... I did not make it all." And "Zayd, I struck," he said: It is correct that "what" can be in the state of accusative for "hastening," and the pronoun in "from it" may return to Allah, exalted and majestic is He, and it may return to the punishment. And His saying, exalted is He: "Then, when it has occurred"; the verse connects the saying with "then" to what has preceded, and then He introduced the entire statement with the letter of affirmation. The meaning of the verse is: When the punishment occurs and you witness it, you will believe in it then, and that will not benefit you, but your response is now, while you were hastening it, denying it. Talhah ibn Musarif read: "Then" with the opening of the thaa, and Al-Tabari said in His saying, exalted is He: "Then" with the damma of the thaa, its meaning is: there. And he said: This "then" is not the one that comes with the meaning of connection. Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The meaning is correct that it is the known "then," but its application to the wording of the revelation is as we said, and what Al-Tabari claimed is not known. And "now" originally, according to some grammarians, is "an" a past verb that the alif and lam entered upon it in its original form in his saying: "... the donkey that is cut off." And it has not been fully recognized by that definition, but it is a word that implies the meaning of the definite article, and for that reason it was built on the opening to include the meaning of the article, and for its occurrence in the position of the ambiguous, because its meaning is: "this time." Al-Amash, Abu Amr, Asim, and the majority read: "now" with elongation and questioning in the manner of reproach, and likewise "now, while you have disobeyed." And Talhah and Al-Araj read it with questioning without elongation. And His saying, exalted is He: "Then it will be said to those who wronged"; the verse is the greatest warning of eternity for the people of specific wrongdoing, which is the wrongdoing of disbelief, not the wrongdoing of disobedience. And His saying: "Are you not recompensed" is a pause and a reproach. This verse indicates that the recompense in the Hereafter is based on the earning of the servant.

And His saying, exalted is He: "And they ask you" means: they inquire of you. This, on this account, takes two objects: one is the 'kaaf' and the other is in the subject and predicate. It is said: it means 'they seek knowledge from you', so it, on this account, requires three objects: one is the 'kaaf', and the subject and predicate suffice as the two objects.

And "Is it true?" It is said: the reference is to the Law and the Qur'an, and it is said: to the warning, and this is the clearer meaning. Al-A'mash read: "Is it the truth?" with elongation and with the definite article 'al'. And His saying: "Indeed" is a word that precedes the oath, and it means "yes". An oath may follow it or it may not. You say: indeed, by my Lord, and indeed, by my Lord. And "mujizīn" means: escaping. This action originally is the transitive form of "‘ajaza", but it has become common to omit the object until the Arabs say: "So-and-so has become 'ajiz'" if he goes into the land and cannot be reached.