And there appeared to them from Allah a warning for them, due to its severity and harshness. This is similar to His saying, 'No soul knows what has been hidden for them.' The meaning is: And there appeared to them from the wrath of Allah and His punishment what had never been in their reckoning and what they had not anticipated in their souls. It is said that they performed deeds which they thought were good, but they turned out to be bad. Sufyan al-Thawri recited it and said: Woe to the people of showing off, woe to the people of showing off. Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir was distressed at his death, and when asked about it, he said: I fear a verse from the Book of Allah, and he recited it, saying: I fear that there will appear to me from Allah what I did not account for. And there appeared to them the evils of what they earned, meaning the evils of their deeds that they earned. Or the evils of their earnings, when their records are presented to them, which were hidden from them, as His saying goes: 'Allah has enumerated it and they have forgotten it.' Or He meant by the evils: the types of punishment by which they will be recompensed for what they earned, and He called them evils, as He said: 'And the recompense of an evil is an evil like it.' And it surrounded them and descended upon them, and the punishment of their mockery encompassed them.