His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "So when the first promise comes, We will send against you servants of Ours, strong in might, and they will invade your homes. And it is a promise fulfilled." "Then We will give you back the upper hand against them and support you with wealth and children and make you more numerous in aid." "If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, it is for it. So when the promise of the Hereafter comes, to make your faces fearful and to enter the mosque as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had taken over, utterly destroyed." The pronoun in His saying "the first" refers back to His saying "twice." He expressed evil with "the promise" because He explicitly mentioned punishment. If the "promise" does not come absolutely, it is permissible for it to occur in evil. Ali ibn Abi Talib and Al-Hasan ibn Abi Al-Hasan read: "servants." The people have differed greatly and distantly regarding the servants that are sent and the state of affairs. Some say that the Children of Israel disobeyed and killed Zakariya, peace be upon him, and that Sanherib, the king of Babylon, invaded them, as Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Jubair said. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said that Jalut from the people of the peninsula invaded them. It has been narrated from Abdullah ibn Al-Zubair that he said in a long narration: "Finally, a king named Khurdush invaded them, and he was responsible for killing them. The commander for Khurdush was named Hurzadhan, and he ceased from the Children of Israel and settled under the protection of the blood of Yahya ibn Zakariya, peace be upon them. It is said that the first to invade them was Sakhabin, the king of Rome, and it is said that Bukhtanassar invaded them. It has been narrated that he entered previously with an army of Persians while he was obscure, moving in the king's kitchen. He learned from the oppression of the Children of Israel what the Persians did not know because he mingled with them. When the army returned, this was mentioned to the greatest king. After a period, the king made him the head of the army and sent him, and he destroyed the Temple and killed them and exiled them. Then he returned and found that the king had died, so he took his place, and his condition continued until he ruled the land thereafter.

And a group said: Indeed, it was Bukhtunassar who invaded them in the last time when they disobeyed and killed Yahya ibn Zakariya, peace be upon them. The manner of his killing was that the king wanted to marry his wife’s daughter. Yahya, peace be upon him, forbade him from that. This was difficult for his wife, so she adorned her daughter and made her serve the king wine. She said to her: If the king attempts to seduce you, then you must refuse until the king gives you what you desire. When he says to you: Wish for me what you want, say to him: The head of Yahya ibn Zakariya. The maiden did that, and the king rejected her twice, but he accepted her on the third time. Then the head was brought in a basin, and its tongue was speaking, saying: It is not lawful for you. The blood of Yahya, peace be upon him, flowed and did not stop. The king placed dirt over him until it was level with the wall of the city, and the blood continued to flow. When the king invaded them, whom Allah sent against them - according to the disagreement about it - he killed from them until he settled after killing seventy thousand. This is the gist of this report. In some of its narrations, there are additions and omissions. A group narrated that Ash'iya admonished them and reminded them of Allah and His blessings in a long address that Al-Tabari recorded. Ash'iya mentioned in the end Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and gave him glad tidings. The Children of Israel rushed to him and fled from them. He encountered a tree that split for him until he entered it, and it closed upon him. Then the devil presented to them a hem of his garment. They took a saw and sawed the tree, cutting him in the middle, and they killed him. At that time, Allah sent against them in the last time.

And Al-Zahrawi mentioned from Qatadah stories that Zakariya is the owner of the tree. They said when Maryam became pregnant: She has lost the daughter of our master until she committed adultery. They sought him, and he fled from them until he entered the tree, and they sawed him. A group narrated that Bukhtunassar was the grandson of Sennacherib, the first king. Another group narrated that the one who invaded them last was Sabur, the one with the shoulders. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, also said: Allah sent against them when they returned three kings from Persia: Sandabadan, Shahryarzan, and another. Mujahid said: Indeed, an army came to them from Persia in the first time, and it moved through the homes and turned about, but there was no fighting or killing among the Children of Israel. Then the armies withdrew from them, and they appeared and were provided with wealth and children until they disobeyed and transgressed. Then he came to them in the second time, killing them and overpowering them in their stronghold and destroying them at the end of time.

And His saying, the Exalted, ﴿So they moved through the homes﴾, refers to the dwellings and abodes. And His saying, the Exalted, ﴿And let them enter the mosque as they entered it the first time﴾, refutes the saying of Mujahid: That there was no overpowering or fighting in the first time. And is it possible to enter the mosque except after overpowering and fighting? A historian has said: They moved through the alleys. Al-Tabari mentioned in this verse a long story, some of which pertains to the verses, and most of it does not pertain. These meanings are not established, and for that reason, I have summarized them.

And His saying, exalted is He: "We sent" may imply that Allah sent a messenger to the king of that nation, commanding him to invade the Children of Israel, so the sending is by command. It may also imply that He expressed by sending what was instilled in the heart of the king who invaded them. The people read: "and they prowled" with a ج, and Abu al-Samali read: "and they entered" with a ح. Both have the meaning of overpowering and entering by force, and from it is حواس. It was said to Abu al-Samali: The reading is only "prowled" with a ج. He said: "prowled" and "entered" are one.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

This indicates a choice, not a narration. Therefore, prayer is not permissible with his reading and the reading of his peers. The majority read: "in between," and Hasan ibn Abi Hasan read: "in the gaps," and he made it accusative in both cases as an adverb.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Then We returned the favor to you against them﴾, the verse is an expression of what Allah said to the Children of Israel in the Torah. He made "We returned" in place of "We will return" since the time of His informing them had not yet occurred. However, since the promise of Allah is in the utmost certainty that it will happen, He expressed the future in the past tense. This favor is after the first exile as we described. The Children of Israel overcame the Temple and possessed it, and their condition was good for a while. Allah granted them wealth and children, and made them when they rallied to a matter more than most people. Al-Tabari said: And We made you a greater number of those who rallied against them. Qatadah said: They were the most numerous in rallying during the time of David, peace be upon him. And "rallying" may imply a gathering of those who rally, like a dog and pups, and a servant and servants. It may also imply فَعيل as a meaning of فاعل, meaning: We made you more of those who rally.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

In my view, rallying is a name for the gathering that rallies, named after the source. And Tubba al-Himyari said:

So honor with Qahtan from the father, and with the Himyarites honor the rally.

And they said: "Neither in the caravan nor in the rally," meaning the gathering of Quraysh leaving Mecca to Badr.

So when Allah, the Most High, said to them: "Indeed, I will do this to you," He followed that with His advice to them in His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "If you do good, you do good for yourselves." The meaning is that you are taken by your deeds; there is no injustice in that nor is it a burden upon you. And "the promise of the Hereafter" means: from the two mentioned occasions. And His saying, the Most High: "So that they may cause your faces to be sad," the "lam" is the lam of command. It is said that the meaning is: We sent them so that they may cause sadness, so it is all the lam of "so that." The pronoun refers to the servants of strong might. The majority read: "So that they may cause sadness" with a "ya," plural and a hamzah between two waw's. And 'Asim - in the narration of Abu Bakr - and Ibn 'Amir read: "So that he may cause sadness" with a "ya" and an open hamzah in the singular. And Al-Kisai - and it is narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him - read: "So that we may cause sadness" with the noon of greatness. And Ubayy ibn Ka'b read: "So that we may cause sadness" with a light noon, and it is the lam of command. And Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, read: "So that they will certainly cause sadness," with the lam opened and it is the lam of oath - and the doer is Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. In the Mushaf of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, it is: "So that he may cause evil" with a rounded ya without a waw. In the Mushaf of Anas, it is: "So that your face may be sad" in the singular. He specifically mentioned the faces because they are the places that indicate what is in a person of good or evil. And "the mosque": is the mosque of Al-Aqsa. And "tabbar" means: to ruin and destroy with oppression. And His saying: "They did not overpower" means: what they did not conquer from the regions and possess from the lands. It is said that "ma" is circumstantial, and the meaning is the duration of their elevation and dominance over the lands. And "tabbar" in its clarification means: to return something to fragments like the fragments of gold and silk and the like, and it is its breaking down.