'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted is He: "And O my people, work according to your position. Indeed, I am working. Soon you will know who will come to him a punishment that will disgrace him, and who is a liar. And wait, indeed, I am with you a watcher." "And when Our command came, We saved Shu'ayb and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us. And the ones who wronged were seized by the cry, and they became in their homes fallen down on their knees." "As if they had never dwelled therein. So away with Midian, as Thamud was away.") The phrase "according to your position" means: according to your states. This is as you say: the position of so-and-so in knowledge is above the position of so-and-so. It is borrowed from places to meanings. Al-Hasan, Abu Abdur-Rahman, and Asim read: "your positions" in the plural, while the majority is on the singular. And His saying: "Work" is a threat and a warning, and it is similar to His saying: "Work as you wish" [Fussilat: 40]. And His saying: "Who will come to him" may be that "who" is the object of "you will know," and the second is an addition to it. Al-Farra' said: It may also be an interrogative in a position of raising by beginning. Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The first is better because it is a relative pronoun and cannot be connected in the interrogative, and it necessitates that the one being added to it is also a relative pronoun without a doubt. And it is correct that the pause is in His saying: "Indeed, I am working" then beginning the speech with the warning, and "who" is an object for "you will know" and it is a relative pronoun. And His saying: "And wait" is also a threat. And His saying, exalted is He: "And when Our command came"—the verse. The command here may be the source of command, and it may be one of the matters. And His saying: "By a mercy from Us" may mean to inform about the mercy that came to Shu'ayb for his prophethood and the goodness of his deeds and the deeds of his followers, or it may mean that the result was only by mere mercy and not by their deeds. And as for "the cry," it is the cry of Jibril, peace be upon him. It has been narrated that he cried out to them with a cry that caused each one of them to fall down in his place where he heard it, dead, as the veils of his heart were torn apart. And the act of falling down is originally in birds when they strike their chest to the ground, then it is used in others when it resembles it. And His saying, exalted is He: "As if they had never dwelled therein"—the verse. The pronoun in His saying: "in it" refers back to "the homes," and "they had never dwelled" means: they established themselves with blessings and ease of living, and from it are the dwellings, which are the inhabited places. And His saying: "So away" is a reminder for the listener, and His saying: "away" is a source of calling with it. This is as you say: "Watering for you, and tending for you, and away with the disbeliever" and similar to this. And this differs from their saying: "Peace be upon you," because this is as if it is informing about something that has become necessary and has been obtained, while that is merely a hoped-for supplication. And the meaning of "away" in the reading of those who read "became away" with a kasrah on the 'ain is destruction, and this is the reading of the majority. And from it is the saying of Khirnaq bint Hunan:

"Let not my people be far away, who are the poison of the enemies and the plague of the islands."

And from it is the saying of Malik ibn al-Rayb:

"They say do not be far away while they are burying me, and where is the place of distance except my place?"

As for the one who reads: "B'udat" and he is al-Sulami and Abu Haywah, he is from the distance that its opposite is closeness, and it is not called by it except for something that is hated.