They do not hope for a good meeting with Us because they are disbelievers. Or they do not fear a bad meeting with Us. And hope in the language of Tihamah means fear. With this, the saying of Allah, the Most High, is explained: "You do not hope for Allah's greatness". The transition to the abode of His recompense is likened to meeting Him if He were to be met. They proposed that Allah send down angels upon them to inform them that Muhammad is truthful so that they would believe him. Or they would see Allah openly and He would command them to believe and follow him. It cannot be that they are either aware that Allah does not send angels except to the prophets, and that Allah cannot be seen [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: la yasih an yura], and they have merely tied their faith to what cannot be. Or they may not be aware of this, but rather they wanted to be obstinate by proposing signs other than the signs that were revealed and established the proof against them, just as the people of Moses did when they said: "We will not believe you until we see Allah openly." If you say: What is the meaning of "in themselves"? I say: Its meaning is that they harbored arrogance against the truth, which is disbelief and stubbornness in their hearts and believed it. As He said: "In their chests is nothing but arrogance, which they will never reach." And they transgressed and exceeded the limit in oppression. It is said: So-and-so has transgressed against us. And the transgression has been described as great, meaning that they did not suffer a loss from this great saying, except because they reached the utmost arrogance and the extreme stubbornness. The "lam" is a response to an omitted oath. This sentence is perfectly suitable in its initiation. And in its style is the saying of the speaker:

"And the neighbor of Jassas informed us with his tusks... Kulaib's tusk has risen high, Kulaib's tusk is equal to it."

[This is a man from Banu Bakr: the tribe of Jassas, boasting over Banu Taghlib: the tribe of Kulaib ibn Rabi'ah, brother of Muhalhal and maternal uncle of Imru' al-Qais. And the neighbor of Jassas is his aunt Al-Basus. "Informed us" - with the hamzah - means: we met and equaled Kulaib, "with his tusks" means: with his old she-camel, so we killed him in it. Then he said in astonishment and admiration: "It has risen high," meaning: the old, emaciated she-camel has become great because of Kulaib's fame.

And "with" is equal to "like" in weight and meaning, meaning: her equal and counterpart is Kulaib ibn Rabi'ah, the well-known brave. And from its story is that Al-Basus came with a man from Jurm to visit her sister Haila, the mother of Jassas ibn Murrah. A Jurmi she-camel went out to graze with the camels of Banu Bakr in the land of Taghlib due to the kinship and affection between them. Kulaib denied the she-camel and thought it was foreign, so he shot it with an arrow and hit its udder. It returned bleeding and knelt in the courtyard of Jassas. Al-Basus saw it and screamed: "Oh, woe! Oh, disgrace!" Jassas said: "Calm down, by Allah, I will slaughter a male camel that is dearer to his people than her." Kulaib thought he meant a male camel he had named Aliyan, so he said: "Before Aliyan, the fibers of the rope are cut." But Jassas meant Kulaib himself. So he watched him one day and threw a spear at him, and he fell. Amr ibn al-Harith followed him, and when Kulaib saw him, he said to him: "Give me water, O Amr." He said: "You left the water behind you and finish him off." He struck him with it, and the famous proverb was struck:

"The one seeking refuge with Amr in his distress... is like the one seeking refuge from the heat in the fire."

And war ignited between Bakr and Taghlib for about thirty years, and the famous saying was struck: "Kulaib struck in the she-camel."

And in the essence of this action is evidence of astonishment without the expression of astonishment. Do you not see that the meaning is: How severe is their arrogance, how great is their transgression, and how precious is Kulaib's tusk.