His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "He said, 'In a little while they will surely become regretful.'" "So the cry seized them in truth, and We made them as chaff. So woe to the wrongdoing people." "Then We brought forth after them other generations." "No nation can advance its term, nor can they delay it." "Then We sent Our messengers in succession. Every time there came to a nation its messenger, they denied him. So We made some of them follow others and We made them stories. So woe to a people who do not believe."

The meaning: Allah, exalted and majestic is He, said to this calling Prophet: "In a little while your people will regret their disbelief when regret will not benefit them." And from mentioning the cry, Al-Tabari went to the view that they are the people of Thamud. His saying, "in truth," means: by what they deserved from their actions and by what was due from Us in their punishment. And "chaff" is what the flood carries of its foam and debris that is not beneficial. Thus, He compares every lifeless and destroyed thing to that. And "woe" is an accusative form due to an implied verb whose expression is omitted.

Then He informed, exalted is He, that He created after these many nations, each nation with a term and in a book that does not exceed it in its existence and at its death.

And "in succession" is a source like the form of the calling and the contagion and similar. And "in succession" is not a verb, rather it is a source from: something followed in succession. The majority read: "in succession" as previously mentioned, and their stopping is with the alif. Hamzah and Al-Kisai incline it. Abu Hatim said: It is an alif of femininity. Ibn Kathir and Abu Amr read: "in succession" with tanween, and their stopping is with the alif, and it is an alif of attachment. Ibn Sidah said: It is said: they came in succession, meaning: in succession. The taa is substituted for the waw in an irregular manner; because the norm of substituting waw with taa is only in "if'ta'ala" and what is derived from it if its root letter is waw. Thus, its first letter changes to taa and is assimilated into the taa of "if'ta'ala," and that is like "it'tazara and it'tajah."

And His saying, exalted is He: "So We made some of them follow others," means: in destruction. And His saying, exalted is He: "And We made them stories," means: stories of example, and rarely is the making of a story used except in evil.