Tafsir for verses: 16:33, 16:34
هَلۡ يَنظُرُونَ إِلَّآ أَن تَأۡتِيَهُمُ ٱلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ أَوۡ يَأۡتِيَ أَمۡرُ رَبِّكَۚ كَذَٰلِكَ فَعَلَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِهِمۡۚ وَمَا ظَلَمَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَلَٰكِن كَانُوٓاْ أَنفُسَهُمۡ يَظۡلِمُونَ ٣٣ ﴿33﴾ فَأَصَابَهُمۡ سَيِّـَٔاتُ مَا عَمِلُواْ وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُواْ بِهِۦ يَسۡتَهۡزِءُونَ ٣٤ ﴿34﴾
33They (the unbelievers) are waiting for nothing but that the angels should come to them, or comes the command of your Lord. Similar was the reaction of those who were before them. Allah did not wrong them; rather they were doing wrong to themselves. 34So, the evils of what they did overtook them, and they were encircled by the very thing they used to ridicule.
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Commentary
The angels come to them. It was recited with a ت and a ي, meaning: that they come to take the souls. And the command of your Lord is the annihilating punishment, or the Day of Resurrection. That is, such an action of polytheism and denial is upon those who were before them, and Allah did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves. Because they did what warranted their destruction. The evil deeds they did are a recompense for the evil of their actions. Or it is like His saying: 'And the recompense of an evil deed is an evil deed like it.'
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Al-ZamakhshariAbū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī
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