When the time came for Our punishment, the 'and' in 'and their messengers came to them' indicates the state of affairs, meaning they wronged themselves by denying, even though their messengers came to them with proofs and evidence of their truthfulness, which are the miracles. And His saying: 'And they would not believe' can be an addition to 'they wronged themselves,' or it can be an interruption, and the 'lam' is for the emphasis of the negation, meaning: and they truly would not believe, emphasizing the negation of their faith, and that Allah knew from them that they persisted in their disbelief, and that faith was unlikely from them. The meaning is that the reason for their destruction was the denial of the messengers, and Allah knew that there was no benefit in delaying them after He established the proof by sending the messengers. Likewise, such a punishment, meaning destruction, We recompense every criminal, and it is a warning to the people of Mecca for their crimes by denying the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. It has also been read as 'He recompenses' with a 'ya.' Then We made you, the address is to those to whom Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, was sent, meaning We made you successors on the earth after the generations We destroyed, to see whether you would do good or evil, so We would deal with you according to your deeds. And 'how' is in the accusative case with 'you act,' it does not wait, because the meaning of the question in it prevents it from having its doer precede it. If you say: How is it permissible to look at Allah, the Exalted, and in it is the meaning of confrontation? [Mahamud said: 'If you say how is it permissible to look at Allah, the Exalted... etc.' Ahmad said: 'I thought that Al-Zamakhshari would limit himself to denying the vision of the servant of Allah, the Exalted, but he added to that the denial of the vision of Allah, and the combination of these two inclinations is the belief of a group of the Qadarites, who say: Allah is neither seen nor sees. Exalted is Allah above what the wrongdoers say, greatly exalted. And the refutation of their claim that sight necessitates confrontation and corporeality has already been established, so we will not repeat it, and Allah is the Grantor of success.] I say: It is borrowed for the certain knowledge, which is the knowledge of the thing being present, likened to the sight of the seer and the observation of the witness in its realization.