And those who come after them, none knows them except Allah. This is a sentence consisting of a subject and a predicate, which serves as an interruption: or it is an addition of those who come after to the people of Noah. And none knows them except Allah is an interruption. The meaning is that they are so numerous that only Allah knows their number. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Between Adnan and Ismail are thirty fathers who are not known. And Ibn Mas'ud, when he recited this verse, said: The genealogists have lied, meaning they claim to know genealogies, while Allah has denied knowledge of them to His servants. So they put their hands in their mouths in anger and annoyance at what the messengers brought. [Mahamud said: 'Its meaning is that they put their hands in their mouths in anger and annoyance at what the messengers brought... etc.' Ahmad said: 'And the strongest of these interpretations is the one that the author pointed out as being particularly strong, and it is so because their preventing the messengers from faith in word and deed by putting their hands in their mouths is suitable for their envy in disbelief. And the introduction of the phrase with the confirming particle and confronting the messengers with the pronouns of address and repeating that is an exaggeration in emphasis, and the context is not suitable for laughter or anger nor for silencing the messengers as it is suitable for their preventing them from acceptance. Do you not see that when they repeated the saying to the messengers and did not deny them returning to argument, it indicates that they did not silence them at first, nor was their aim that, and Allah knows best.], like His saying: 'They bit their fingertips in anger' or laughed and mocked like one who is overcome by laughter and puts his hand over his mouth. Or they indicated with their hands to their tongues and what they uttered by saying: 'Indeed, we have disbelieved in what you have been sent with,' meaning this is our response to you; we have nothing else, to prevent them from believing. Do you not see His saying: 'So they put their hands in their mouths and said: 'Indeed, we have disbelieved in what you have been sent with,' and this is a strong saying. Or they put them over their mouths saying to the prophets: 'Shut your mouths and be silent.' Or they returned them into the mouths of the prophets indicating to them to be silent. Or they put them over their mouths to silence them and did not allow them to speak. And it was said: The hands, plural of hand, are the blessings meaning the blessings, i.e., they returned the blessings of the prophets, which are the greatest blessings of their admonitions and advice and what was revealed to them from the laws and signs, into their mouths, because when they denied them and did not accept them, it is as if they returned them into their mouths and sent them back to where they came from, as a metaphor for what you call us to, of belief in Allah. And it has been read: 'You call us,' with the merging of the noon. Muribin means causing doubt or one who has doubt, from arāba, and arāba [the phrase 'and arāba the man' may refer to: or arāba.] the man, which is the anxiety of the soul and not being at peace with the matter.