His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And when a group of them said, 'Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or punish with a severe punishment?' They said, 'As an excuse to your Lord, and perhaps they may fear Him.'﴾ ﴿So when they forgot what they had been reminded of, We saved those who forbade evil, and We seized those who wronged with a wretched punishment for what they used to rebel.﴾ ﴿So when they persisted in what they had been forbidden, We said to them, 'Be apes, despised.'﴾

The majority of the commentators said: Indeed, the Children of Israel split into three groups. One group disobeyed and rebelled, another group forbade and openly spoke out and separated themselves, and a third group separated but did not disobey or forbid. This third group, when they saw the open defiance of the forbidding group and the tyranny of the disobedient, said to the forbidding group, 'Why do you admonish a people?' meaning the disobedient, 'Allah is about to destroy them or punish them,' based on their strong assumption and what was known of Allah's actions at that time with disobedient nations. The forbidding group said, 'Our admonition is an excuse to Allah.' Then there was a disagreement after this. One group said: The group that did not disobey and did not forbid has perished with the disobedient as a punishment for neglecting the prohibition. This was said by Ibn Abbas, who also said: I do not know what happened to them. Another group said: No, they were saved with the forbidding group because they did not disobey nor did they approve. This was said by Ikrimah, Al-Hasan, and others. Ibn Al-Kalbi reported (p-72) in what Al-Tabari attributed to him: The Children of Israel did not split except into two groups: one group disobeyed and openly rebelled, and another group forbade, changed, and separated, and they said to the disobedient: Indeed, Allah will destroy them and punish them. A group of the disobedient said to the forbidding group - in a manner of mockery - 'Why do you admonish a people whom you know Allah is about to destroy or punish?'

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

And the first statement is more correct, and the pronouns in His saying, 'to your Lord, and perhaps they...' support it. This address necessitates an addressee and an addressed, and an implied subject. Ibn Kathir, Nafi, Abu Amr, Ibn Amer, Hamzah, and Al-Kisai read, 'an excuse' in the nominative, meaning: 'Our admonition is an excuse,' that is, the establishment of an excuse. Aasim - in some of what was narrated from him - and Isa ibn Umar, and Talhah ibn Musarif read, 'an excuse' in the accusative, meaning: 'We admonished as an excuse.' Abu Ali said: Its proof is that Sibawayh said: If a man said to another, 'An excuse to Allah and to you from such and such,' he would have to use the accusative.

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

The man speaking in this example is excusing himself, whereas this is not the case for the forbidders from the Children of Israel. So reflect. And the meaning of 'destroy them' is in this world or 'punish them' in the Hereafter, and His saying, 'perhaps they may fear Him' necessitates pure hope because it is from the words of human beings.

And the pronoun in His saying: "They forgot" refers to those who are prohibited, and it is a leaving that is called forgetting, since the strongest forms of leaving is for the left thing to be forgotten. And the "what" in His saying: "what they were reminded of" means that which, and it is possible that it refers to the reminder itself, and it is possible that it refers to what was in it of the reminder. And the term "evil" is a general term for all sins, except that what is specific here according to the context of the verse is the hunting of fish. And "those who wronged" are the sinners, and His saying: "with a wretched punishment" means: painful, severe, and tormenting.

Nafi' and the people of Medina - Abu Ja'far, Shaiba, and others - read "wretched" with a broken baa and a silent ya and a broken seen with tanween. This is based on the fact that it is a verb that has been named as such, like His ﷺ saying: "He forbade you from idle talk." And Al-Hasan ibn Abi Al-Hasan read: "wretched" as you say: wretched is the man, and Abu Hatim weakened it. Abu Amr said: It has been narrated from Al-Hasan "wretched" with a hamzah between the baa and the seen. And Nafi' - in what is narrated from him by Khairijah - read: "wretched" with an opened baa and a silent ya and a broken seen with tanween. And Malik ibn Dinar narrated from Nasr ibn Aasim "wretched" on the pattern of jamal and jabal. And Abu Abdur-Rahman Al-Muqri read: "wretched" with an opened baa and a broken hamzah and a tanweened seen on the pattern of fa'il, and from it is the saying of Abdullah ibn Qais Al-Ruqayyat:

I wish I could meet Ruqayyah in a place free from any wretchedness.

Abu Amr Al-Dani said: This is the reading of Nasr ibn Aasim and Talhah ibn Musarif. And it has been narrated from Nasr "wretched" with a broken ya without a hamzah. Al-Zahrawi said: It has been narrated from Al-Amash "wretched" with an opened baa and a broken hamzah that is emphasized and a broken seen with tanween. And a group read: "wretched" which is the same as before except for the opening of the seen, which Abu Amr Al-Dani mentioned from what Ya'qub narrated. And Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, Hamzah, Al-Kisai, Nafi' - in the narration of Abu Qurah from him - and Asim - in the narration of Hafs from him - read: "wretched" with a ya after the broken hamzah and the tanweened seen on the pattern of fa'il. And this is a description by the source like their saying: "the wretched of the tribe" and the warning and the admonition, and similar to that. This is the reading of Al-A'raj, Mujahid, the people of Hijaz, Abu Abdur-Rahman, Nasr ibn Aasim, and Al-Amash, and it is the one that Abu Hatim preferred, and from it is the saying of Dhul-Isba' Al-Udwan:

Angry with me, and I see no evil from either of them.

And the people of Mecca read "wretched" like the first except for the broken baa, on the pattern of fa'il. Abu Hatim said: They are two dialects. And Asim - in the narration of Abu Bakr from him - read: "wretched" with an opened baa and a silent ya and an opened hamzah, on the pattern of fay'il, and its meaning is: severe, and from it is the saying of Imru' al-Qais ibn Abis Al-Kindi:

Both of them were leaders, wretched, striking on the day of the raging tumult.

So it is a description like that of a lion and a brave one. It is the reading of Al-A'mash. And 'Isa ibn Umar read it, and Al-A'mash - with a difference from him - read: 'Bai'sin' like the one before it except for the breaking of the hamzah on the pattern of 'Fa'il'. And this is odd because there is no 'Fa'il' in the correct form, but it exists in the defective forms like 'Sayyid' and 'Mayyit'. And Al-Zahrawi said: Nasr narrated from Asim: 'Bayyis' on the model of 'Mayyit', and this is based on it being from 'bu's'. And there is no basis for it in the hamzah. Abu Hatim said: Asim claimed that Al-Hasan and Al-A'mash read: 'Bi'aysin' where the 'ba' is broken, the hamzah is silent, and the 'ya' is opened on the model of 'Khayyam'. And Abu Hatim weakened it. Ibn Amer among the seven reciters read: 'Bi'sin' with the 'ba' broken, the hamzah silent, and the 'si' broken with tanween. And a group read: 'Ba'sin' with the 'ba' opened and the 'alif' silent. And Abu Rija' read: 'Baisin' on the pattern of 'Fa'il'. And a group read: 'Bayisa' with the 'ba', 'ya', and 'si' opened on the pattern of 'Fa'ala'. And Malik ibn Dinar read: 'Ba'sa' with the 'ba' and 'si' opened and the hamzah silent on the pattern of 'Fa'l' which is not declined. And a group read: 'Ba'sin' declined. And Abu Hatim narrated 'Bayis'. Abu Al-Fath said: It is the reading of Nasr ibn Asim. And Al-Zahrawi narrated from Ibn Kathir and the people of Mecca 'Bi'sa' and it is pronounced with a light hamzah.

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

And he did not clarify whether the hamzah is broken or silent. And His saying, 'because of what they used to disobey,' means for that reason and as a punishment for it.

And 'Al-'utu' means obstinacy and lack of obedience.

And His saying, 'We said to them' is possible to be a saying in words from an angel who made them hear that, so it was more removed in strangeness, humiliation, and belittlement. And it is possible that it is an expression of the power that transformed them into apes. And 'Khas'een' means distanced, as when the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said to Ibn Sayyad: 'Khas!' And as it is said to a dog: 'Khas!' So 'Khas'een' is a report after a report. This is the choice of Abu Al-Fath, and he weakened the description, and that is also so, because the intention is not to liken them to distanced apes.

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

And it is permissible that 'Khas'een' is a state of the pronoun in 'Koonu', and the description is also directed despite its weakness. It has been narrated that the youth among them were transformed into apes and the old men into pigs. And it has been narrated that their transformation occurred after the disobedience in fishing for two years. And Ibn Al-Kalbi said: Their destruction was in the time of Dawud. And it has been narrated that those who forbade divided the city between them and the disobedient with a wall. So when they became the night of the destruction of the disobedient, the gate of the city of the disobedient was not opened until the day rose. So the forbidders were suspicious of that, and one of the people climbed onto the wall and saw them transformed into apes jumping. So he shouted, and they entered upon them, and the man recognized his relative, and the ape also recognized his relative likewise. And they joined their relatives and lamented. Al-Zajjaj said: And some people said: It is possible that these apes are from their offspring.

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

And these people are attached to the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "Indeed, a nation among the nations has been lost, and I do not see it except as the mouse when milk is brought to it, it does not drink." And to his saying, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding the lizard. The stories of this matter are more than this, but I have summarized it and focused on its essentials.