His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

"And We certainly gave Moses the Book and made with him his brother Aaron as a minister." "So We said, 'Go to the people who have denied Our signs.' So We destroyed them with complete destruction." "And the people of Noah, when they denied the messengers, We drowned them and made them for mankind a sign. And We have prepared for the wrongdoers a painful punishment." "And 'Aad and Thamud and the companions of the well and many generations between that." "And We struck for each one examples, and We completely destroyed them with destruction."

These verses in which the nations are mentioned serve as a representation for them and a warning that what befell those who were punished may also befall them. And "the Book" refers to the Torah, and "the minister" is the helper, and it is from bearing the burden, meaning the weight of the situation, and from the refuge which is the shelter. And "the people who denied" refers to Pharaoh and his elite from the Copts. Then much has been omitted from the speech, which is indicated by what remains. The estimation of the omitted part is: 'So they went and delivered the message, and they denied them, so We destroyed them.' And Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, and Muslima ibn Muharib read: "So destroy them," meaning: 'Be the cause of that.' Abu al-Fath said: 'The noon of emphasis was added to the alif of duality, as you say to a man: 'Strike Zayd.'

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

And it has been narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him: "So destroy them," and Abu Amr al-Dani narrated from them: "So we destroyed them" with a broken mim lightly. He said: And it has been narrated from them: "So destroy them with it" in the imperative for a group and with the addition of a ba. And what Abu al-Fath explained is an error, and rather the reading is: "So destroy them with it" with the ba, and thus it was mentioned by al-Mahdawi.

And his saying: "the people" is established by an implied action indicated by "We drowned them." And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "the messengers" refers to the fact that they only denied Noah, meaning that the nation which denies one prophet is, in that, denying all the prophets. Thus, the expression came with what their action implied as a statement against them. And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "a sign" means a sign of the might of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, against every disbeliever in His prophets.

"And 'Aad and Thamud" can be declined or not declined. Here it came declined. And Ibn Mas'ud, Amr ibn Maymun, al-Hasan, and 'Isa read: "And 'Aad" declined. And Thamud is not declined.

People differed regarding "the companions of the well." Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, said: They are a people from Thamud. And Qatadah said: The people of a village in Yamamah called al-Rass. And Ka'b, Muqatil, and al-Suddi said: Al-Rass is a well in Antioch of Greater Syria, where the companion of Yasin was killed. And al-Kalbi said: The companions of the well are a people to whom a prophet was sent, and they killed him. And Qatadah said: The companions of the well and the companions of the grove are two nations to whom Shu'ayb, blessings and peace be upon him, was sent. And this was also said by Wahb ibn Munabbih. And Ali - in the book of al-Thalabi - said: The companions of the well are a people who worshipped a tree of pine called "Shah Darakht" and they buried their prophet in a well or grave or mine. And from this is the saying of the poet:

I have preceded to a place of abundance, where the diggers dig the wells.

(p-440) And 'Ikrimah and Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi narrated from the Prophet ﷺ that the people referred to in this verse were a group who took their prophet and threw him into a well, and they placed a rock over him. There was a black slave who had believed in him. He would bring food to that well and Allah would help him to lift that rock, while he was a believer in that prophet. He would give him what would nourish him, then he would return that rock, until Allah struck that black man with sleep for fourteen years. The people of the village then brought out their prophet and believed in him... in a long narration. Al-Tabari said: It is possible that they disbelieved in him after that, and Allah, the Exalted, mentioned them in this verse. And His saying, 'And many generations between that' is an implication that only Allah, the Exalted, knows its reality. The explanation of 'generation' has already been mentioned, and how many it is. From this term, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said in what is narrated - and it is narrated that Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, said it -: 'The genealogists have lied beyond Adnan'; because Allah, Blessed and Exalted, informed about many of the nations and creation and did not inform about others. Then Allah, the Exalted, said: Indeed, all of these have been given examples to be guided, but they did not guide, so Allah destroyed them, meaning He perished them. And 'tabar' means destruction, and 'tibr' means gold, meaning the broken and shattered. For this reason, it is said about the fragments of marble and glass: 'tibr'. Ibn Jubayr said: The origin of the word is Nabataean, but the Arabs have used it.