His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "We will write what they said and their killing of the prophets unjustly, and we will say, 'Taste the punishment of the burning'" [Al-Imran: 181]. "That is because of what your own hands have sent before, and indeed Allah is not unjust to the servants". "Those who said, 'Indeed, Allah has made a covenant with us that we will not believe in a messenger until there comes to us with a sacrifice that fire consumes.'"

Hamzah read alone: "It will be written" with the ya from below on the structure of the verb for the passive: and "their killing" with the lam raised, in conjunction with the object whose doer has not been named, and "He says" with the ya from below. The others read with the nun of the plural. It is either the nun of greatness, or it is for the angels, and "what" in this reading is the object of it, and "their killing" with the lam in the accusative, in conjunction with "what", and "and we say" with the nun in the manner of "We will write". The meaning in these two readings is close to each other. Al-Kisai said: And in the reading of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud: "And it is said, 'Taste.'" Abu Mu'adh the grammarian said regarding the readings of Ibn Mas'ud: "We will write what they say" and "it is said to them, 'Taste.'" Talhah ibn Musarif read: "We will write what they say," and Abu Amr also narrated from him that he read: "It will be written" with a raised ta, "what they said," meaning: their saying will be written.

And this verse is a warning to them, meaning: He will enumerate their saying against them. The writing, as many scholars have narrated, is in scrolls that the angels record in them. Those written scrolls are the ones that will be weighed, and in them Allah creates heaviness and lightness according to the deed written in them. Some people went to say that the writing is an expression of enumeration and not neglect, so He expressed that in a manner that the Arabs understand with utmost precision and recording. So the meaning of the verse is that the sayings of these people will be written and their deeds, and this connects with the actions of their forefathers of killing the prophets unjustly and so on. Then it will be said to all of them: "Taste the punishment of the burning". And the verse mixed the forefathers with the children in the pronouns, as the forefathers are the ones who paved the way for their children to disbelieve, and the children are pleased with the actions of the forefathers, following them.

And tasting with punishment is metaphorical, an expression of direct experience, as tasting is one of the most expressive types of it and its sense is very distinct. The burning means: the one that burns, fa'il in the sense of muf'il, and it was said: the burning is a layer of the layers of Hell.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "That is because of what your own hands have sent before" is a reproach and a stopping point within what is said to them on the Day of Resurrection. It is possible that it is a speech directed to those contemporary to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, on the day of the revelation of the verse. He attributed this sending forth to the hand, as it is the one that earns deeds in most matters of a person, so every earning was attributed to it. Then He clarified that He does this with justice from Him towards them and placing things in their proper place, and the estimation is: and indeed Allah is not unjust to the servants. And He gathered "servant" in this verse on "servants" because it is a place of compassion and salvation from injustice.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿Those who said, 'Indeed, Allah has taken a covenant upon us'﴾ is a description that refers back to His saying: ﴿Those who said, 'Indeed, Allah is poor'﴾ [Aali 'Imran: 181]. Al-Zajjaj said: 'Those' is a description of the servants, and this corrupts the meaning and the arrangement. This statement was made by the rabbis of the Jews in defense of the matter of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, meaning that you do not bring us fire, for we have been promised not to believe you. And 'covenant' means: commanded, and the covenant is more specific than the command, in that it pertains to everything that extends in its matter and remains in the past of time. And 'from' in this verse is transgressed with 'to' and 'by' within that. And 'offering' is a source named for that which is brought close, like a pledge. The matter of the offering was an ancient ruling among the prophets. Do you not see that the two sons of Adam brought an offering? This is because when they wanted to know Allah's acceptance of a person's charity or his deed or the truth of his words, he would bring an offering, a slaughtered sheep or cow or something of that sort, and place it in a location for the air and wait for it for an hour. Then fire would descend from the sky and burn that thing; this is a sign of acceptance. If the fire did not descend, then that deed is not accepted. Then this ruling was among the prophets of the Children of Israel. This fire would also descend upon the spoils of war and burn them, until the spoils were made lawful for Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, according to the hadith. It has been narrated from 'Isa ibn 'Umar that he used to read 'with an offering' with the 'ra' pronounced with a dammah, and that is in following the dammah of the 'qaf' and it is not in the language, for there is no word in the speech that is 'fa'lan' with the 'fa' and 'ayn' pronounced with a dammah. Sibawayh has mentioned: 'the sultan' with the 'lam' pronounced with a dammah, and he said: that is in following.