'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' He, the Exalted, says: "And if the companions of the thicket were indeed wrongdoers. So We took vengeance upon them, and indeed, they are both on a clear path. And certainly, the companions of the stone denied the messengers. And We gave them Our signs, but they turned away from them. And they were carving from the mountains houses, feeling secure. So the blast seized them in the morning. So what they had earned did not avail them. And We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them except in truth, and indeed, the Hour is coming, so overlook with gracious forgiveness. Indeed, your Lord is the Creator, the All-Knowing." The 'thicket' is the grove and the intertwined green trees, which can be the sidr and similar trees. Qatadah said: It has been narrated that the thicket of these people was from the dom palm trees. It was said: from the mukl tree, and it was said: from the sidr tree. These people lived in a thicket and relied on it for their livelihoods. So Allah sent to them Shu'ayb, peace be upon him, but they disbelieved. So Allah sent upon them heat that lasted for seven days. Then they saw a cloud and went out to seek shade under it, but it ignited a fire upon them. Al-Tabari narrated that Shu'ayb was sent to two nations that disbelieved and were punished with two different punishments: the people of Madyan were punished with a blast, and the companions of the thicket were punished with shade. The readers did not differ in this place regarding the inclusion of the definite article on 'thicket', and most of them pronounced the 'a' of 'thicket' after the 'l', and it has been narrated from some of them that they simplified it and transferred its vowel to the 'l', thus reading: 'the thicket' without the 'a'. They differed in Surah Ash-Shu'ara and in Surah Sad. And 'if' is the lightened form of the heavy one according to the Basri scholars. Al-Farra' said: 'if' means 'what'. And the 'lam' in His saying: 'indeed wrongdoers' means 'except'. Abu Ali said: 'thicket' is the plural of 'thicket' like 'date' and 'dates'. An evidence for this wording is the saying of Umayyah ibn Abi al-Salt: "Like the cooing of the doves on the branches of the thicket in the birds of the wings." And the saying of Jarir: "And I stood there, and longing stirred within me, like the doves of the thicket making her happy." And another saying: "Indeed, this world is the lushness of a thicket; when one side greens, the other side dries." And from the saying of Al-Hudhali: "Adorned with two braids, she approached, gathering from the thicket, her short hair flowing over it." And Al-Asma'i recited: "And no creek from the one with a ridge, throwing the land with the wood of the thicket and the lost." And the pronoun in His saying: 'and indeed they' may return to the two cities that were previously mentioned, the city of the people of Lut and the city of the companions of the thicket. It may also return to the two prophets, Lut and Shu'ayb, in that they are on a path from Allah and a clear law.

'The Imam' in the speech of the Arabs is the thing by which one is guided and followed. They say it for the thread of construction. It can be the path, it can be the beneficial book, it can be the analogy that the craftsmen work upon, and it can be the man who is followed. And similar to this, whoever sees the return of the pronoun in 'Indeed, they both' regarding the two cities says: the Imam is the path. It is said regarding that: the Imam is the book in which the destruction of them was previously mentioned.

And 'the companions of Al-Hijr' are Thamud, and their story has already been mentioned. 'Al-Hijr' is their city, and it is what lies between Al-Madinah and Tabuk. And He said: 'the messengers' in the sense that the denial of one messenger is the denial of all, as the saying in beliefs is one for all the messengers. Thus, this expression is more severe upon the deniers.

And the signs that Allah gave them are the she-camel and what it included of breaking the norm, according to what has been previously explained and elaborated. Abu Haywah read: 'And We gave them Our sign' in the singular.

And His saying, the Exalted: 'And they were hewing' describes the people of Salih as being very focused on the world and earning from it. He mentioned as an example that their houses were hewn from the rock of the mountains. And 'hewing' means carving with tools and similar things in stone and wood. The majority of people read with a broken 'hā', while Al-Hasan read with a opened 'hā', and that is due to the throat letter. This is the reading of Abu Haywah. And His saying: 'secure', it was said that its meaning is: from its collapse, and it was said: from the calamities of the world, and it was said: from death due to their being deceived by the length of their deeds.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

All of this is weak, and the most correct that appears in that is that they were secure regarding the consequences of the Hereafter, so they did not act according to it. Rather, they acted according to the security from it.

And the meaning of 'mushbiḥīn' is at their entering in the morning. It was mentioned that this was on a Saturday. The story of their punishment, their appointed time, and the change of their colors has already been mentioned. And their intense focus on the world and their earning did not benefit them at all, nor did it avert the punishment of Allah.

And the first 'ma' is for negation, and it can imply confirmation, while the second is a source.

And His saying, the Exalted: 'And We did not create the heavens and the earth' means that these earners of the world who did not benefit from their earning are nothing. For indeed, the heavens and the earth and all things were not created in vain or without purpose, nor to be in obedience to Allah as these and their likes did. Rather, they were created with truth, for a necessary purpose, and with aims that have ends of punishment and bliss. And indeed, the Hour is coming upon all matters of the world. So do not be concerned, O Muhammad, with the deeds of your people, for the reward for them is lying in wait. So overlook their deeds, meaning: turn your neck away from them by ignoring them, and He emphasized the overlooking by describing it as beautiful, as the intention is that there should be no blame in it nor confrontation. And this verse necessitates reconciliation, and its abrogation is in the verse of the sword, as said by Qatadah.

Then he comforted him at the end of the verse by saying that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, creates whom He wills for whom He wills. And He knows, glorified and exalted is He, the reason for the wisdom in that, not these idols that you worship. And the majority of the people recited: 'the Creator', while Al-A'mash and Al-Jahdari recited: 'the Creator'.