Allah has revealed curses upon them in the Psalms on the tongue of David and in the Gospel on the tongue of Jesus. It is said that when the people of Ailah transgressed on the Sabbath, David, peace be upon him, said: O Allah, curse them and make them a sign. So they were transformed into apes. And when the followers of Jesus, peace be upon him, disbelieved after the feast, Jesus, peace be upon him, said: O Allah, punish those who disbelieved after eating from the feast with a punishment You have not inflicted upon anyone among the worlds, and curse them as You cursed the people of the Sabbath. They became pigs, and there were five thousand men among them, with no women or children. This was because of their disobedience, meaning that this heinous curse, which was the cause of their transformation, was only due to disobedience and transgression, not for any other reason. Then he explained disobedience and transgression by saying: They did not forbid one another from the sinful deeds they committed. Then he said: How evil was what they did, expressing astonishment at their evil actions, confirming it with an oath. So, alas for the Muslims in their neglect of the command to forbid what is sinful, and their lack of concern for it, as if it is not part of the religion of Islam at all, despite what they recite from the words of Allah and the exaggerations in this regard. If you say: How did the neglect of forbidding what is sinful occur? [Mamdouh said: 'If you say how did the neglect of forbidding... etc.? Ahmad said: In this rebuke, there is news of two ugly matters: one is that they were committing sinful deeds, and the other is that they were neglecting to forbid them, meaning similar deeds in the future. Were it not for the addition of (they committed), it would not have been stated that they occurred among them, and it would have been stated that the neglect of forbidding what is sinful occurred when it was deserving of prohibition, that is, when they were on the verge of committing it and the signs indicating it appeared. Thus, both matters were established in the most concise and eloquent manner. This verse indicates the correct Ash'ari doctrine, that the subject of prohibition is an action, which is the neglect, contrary to Abu Hashim the Mu'tazili, who said: 'Its subject is pure negation and absence.' The reason for the indication of the verse that its subject is an action is that it expressed the neglect of forbidding what they were reproached for as an action, where it said: 'How evil was what they did,' meaning how evil was the neglect of forbidding. As you say: Zaid is a bad man, you make the man apply to Zaid. And their neglect of forbidding what is sinful in the previous verse was called an action, where it said: 'If only the scholars and the rabbis had forbidden them,' up to the saying: 'How evil was what they were doing.' This is more eloquent in indicating that the subject of prohibition is a fixed matter, as action is more capable of indicating affirmation than neglect. This report has been mentioned, and Allah is the Grantor of success.]}