(p-382) His saying - glorified and exalted is He -: ﴿Say, He is the One who is capable of sending upon you a punishment from above you or from beneath your feet, or He may cause you to become divided into factions and make some of you taste the might of others. Look how We explain the verses, so perhaps they will understand.﴾ ﴿And your people have denied it while it is the truth. Say, I am not a guardian over you.﴾ ﴿For every news there is a place of return, and you will soon know.﴾ This is a report that includes a warning; and the most apparent from the sequence of the verses is that this address is to the disbelievers who have been mentioned previously; and this is the view of al-Tabari. Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Abu al-Aliyah and a group with them said: It is for the believers; and they are the intended ones. Ubayy ibn Ka'b said: It consists of four conditions; and all of them are punishment; and all of them will occur before the Day of Resurrection. Two of them occurred after the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - after twenty-five years; then they were divided into factions; and some of them tasted the might of others; and two will certainly occur: the sinking and the stoning. Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan said: Some of it is for the disbelievers; and some of it is for the believers; the sending of punishment from above and beneath is for the disbelievers; and the rest is for the believers. This difference is based on what appears from the verse that it encompasses meanings for the polytheists and the believers. It has been narrated from the hadith of Jabir and Khalid al-Khuza'i that when the Messenger of Allah - blessings and peace be upon him - received the verse: ﴿to send upon you a punishment from above you﴾; he said: 'I seek refuge in Your face.' When the verse was revealed: ﴿or from beneath your feet﴾; he said: 'I seek refuge in Your face.' When the verse was revealed: ﴿or He may cause you to become divided into factions and make some of you taste the might of others﴾; he said: 'This is the easiest' or 'This is the lightest.' This was used as an argument by those who said that it was revealed concerning the believers. Al-Tabari said: And it is not impossible that the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him - sought refuge for his nation from these things that the disbelievers were warned of; and he downplayed the third because it is, in meaning, that which he - blessings and peace be upon him - prayed for and was prevented from, according to the hadith of al-Muwatta and others. Ibn Mas'ud - may Allah be pleased with him - said: It is the worst of the three; and this, in my view, is in the context of severity in admonition; and the truth is that it is the easiest of them, as he said - may peace and blessings be upon him. And 'from above you and from beneath your feet' is a general term applicable to humans. Al-Suddi said from Abu Malik: ﴿from above you﴾: the stoning; and ﴿from beneath your feet﴾: the sinking. This was also said by Sa'id ibn Jubair and Mujahid. Ibn Abbas - may Allah be pleased with them - said: ﴿from above you﴾: the rulers of injustice; and ﴿from beneath your feet﴾: the lowly of evil and the servants of evil. Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: All of these are examples; not that they are the intended ones; as they and others from drought, drowning, and other than that are included in the generality of the term. And 'He may cause you to become divided into factions' - according to the reading of the six - means: 'He mixes you'; 'factions' are groups that some of them follow others; and mixing means mixing. The interpreters said: It is the divergence of opinions and the fighting among the nation.

And Abu Abdullah al-Madani read: "He will clothe you"; with a dhamma on the ya; from "al-basa"; so it is a metaphor from "al-libas"; the meaning is: "or He will clothe you with the trial in factions"; and "factions" is in the accusative as a حال; and the poet said:

I have clothed people and I have destroyed them ∗∗∗...............

So this is an expression of mixing; and enduring; and the clothing of killing; and what resembles it from the disliked things.

"And He will make you taste"; is a metaphor; as it is from the most significant senses of testing; and it is a metaphor commonly used in much of the speech of the Arabs; and in the Qur'an; and al-Amash read: "And We will make you taste"; with the plural noon; and it is the noon of greatness in relation to Allah - glorified and exalted is He -; and you say: "I made so-and-so taste the bitter"; meaning the dislike of something you made him experience; and similar to this.

And in His saying, the Exalted: "Look how We turn"; the verse; it is a return for them; and although its wording is an expression of amazement for the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him -; its implication is that these verses and signs are indeed for turning them away from their path of misguidance; and "al-fiqh": understanding.

And the pronoun in "by it"; refers back to the Qur'an in which the turning of the verses came; this was said by al-Suddi; and this is the apparent meaning; and it was said: it refers back to the Prophet - blessings and peace be upon him -; and this is unlikely; due to the proximity of addressing him thereafter with the kaf in His saying: "Your people"; and it is possible that the pronoun returns to the warning that the verse contains; and this is what al-Tabari inclined towards; and Ibn Abi Abla read: "And your people denied it"; with the addition of a ta; and "with a guardian"; its meaning is: with something that compels you to take faith; and guidance; and "the guardian"; means: "the protector"; and this was before the command of jihad and fighting; then it was abrogated; and it was said: there is no abrogation in this; as it is a report.

The judge Abu Muhammad - may Allah have mercy on him - said: and the abrogation in it is directed; because the necessary implication of the wording is: "You are not now"; and there is no implication that it will not be in what is newly initiated; and His saying: "For every news is a settled matter"; meaning an endpoint; at which its truthfulness is known from its falsehood; "And you will surely know"; is a pure threat; and a warning.