His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿Did they not travel in the land and observe how was the end of those before them? They were stronger than them in might and they cultivated the earth and populated it more than they populated it. And their messengers came to them with clear signs. So Allah would not have wronged them, but they were wronging themselves.﴾

This is also a reprimand and a warning that they traveled and observed. This means that this did not benefit them when they did not act according to the lesson and fear the consequence.

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

And it is not appropriate for the disbelievers to oppose those among them who did not travel by saying: I did not travel; because all those who traveled among the people have conveyed to those who did not travel. Thus, knowledge is equal and certainty has been attained for all, and the proof has been established. This is clear.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿And they cultivated the earth﴾ means: with buildings, agriculture, and wars. And all the buildings they established are all cultivation, some of it is literal and some of it is figurative; because the cultivation of the people of the earth, animals, and possessions is a cultivation of the earth. Abu Ja'far read: "And they cultivated" with the elongation of the hamzah. Ibn Mujahid said: This is nothing. Abu al-Fath said: Its aspect is that he completed the opening of the hamzah, and an alif was formed. And similar is the saying of Ibn Harmalah:

؎ So you are among the calamities when you are thrown ∗∗∗ and from the blame of men in a state of retreat.

He said: And this is from the necessity of poetry; it does not occur in the Qur'an. And Abu Haywah read: "And they preferred" with the elongation without an alif after the thaa, from the preference. And the pronoun in "they populated it" the first refers to those who passed, and the second refers to the present and contemporaneous. And the rest of the verse is clear, containing admonition and warning from Allah, exalted and majestic is He.