The water that you drink means: the sweet water suitable for drinking. And the clouds are called al-muzn: the singular is muzna. It is said that it specifically refers to the white clouds, and it is the sweetest water, unlike salty water that is bitter and undrinkable. If you say: Why did you include the 'lam' in the response to 'if' in the saying 'We would have made it into dust' and omitted it here? I say: Since 'if' is introducing two sentences, the second is dependent on the first, the consequence is tied to the condition. It is not like 'if' or working like it, rather the meaning of the condition is conveyed by agreement, as it implies in the content of both sentences that the second is impossible due to the impossibility of the first. Therefore, it required in its response something that indicates this connection, so this 'lam' was added to serve as an indicator of that. If it is omitted after it has become a well-known indicator, it is because when something is known and its position is established and familiar, there is no concern about its omission from the wording, as the listener is familiar with it. Do you not see what is narrated about Ru'ba that he would say: 'Good,' to someone who asked him: 'How did you wake up?' He omitted the preposition because everyone knows its position. The state of omitting it and affirming it is equal due to its well-known nature. Consider the saying of Aws: 'Until when the dogs said to her... like today requested and not requested.' And he omitted 'I did not see,' so its omission is a verbal abbreviation while it is established in meaning, thus both positions are equal without difference between them, given that its prior mention and the short distance suffices for its second mention and serves as a substitute for it. It may also be said that this 'lam' undoubtedly conveys the meaning of emphasis, so it was included in the verse about food and not in the verse about drink, to indicate that the matter of food is prioritized over the matter of drink, and that the warning for its absence is more severe and difficult, because drink is only needed as a supplement to food. Do you not see that you only serve your guest drink after feeding them? If you reversed it, you would fall under the saying of Abu al-Ala: 'When I served the people’s guests pure milk... they served their guests cold water.' This is by Abu al-Ala praising Sa'd al-Dawlah Abu al-Fadail, and he reproached him for praising serving guests water before mentioning food. And al-mukhad, with two 'm's, is the milk from which its cream has been removed, meaning it is the same as mamkhud. It is narrated: 'pure,' with a silent 'h,' meaning: pure, sweet, or sour. And al-shabm, like al-hadhar, means: cold. And al-zalal means: the aftermath. This is where the scholars of rhetoric have made the occasion a means of indicating the intended meaning, so we say: The meaning of the verse is: If you hasten the milk to the guests and they suffice with it instead of hastening the food: they hasten the food for their guests in preparation for the guests, thus they need to drink water, so they serve them water before feeding others, as serving them water indicates the hastening of food before it due to the nature of the occasion, because it is customary and there is no fault in it. Some Arabs said: 'I do not drink except on a full stomach,' and for this reason, the verse about food was presented before the verse about drink.