“Had the people of the towns believed and been mindful of Allah, We would certainly have opened for them blessings from heaven and earth. But they denied, so We seized them for what they used to earn. (96) Did the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment coming upon them by night while they were asleep? (97) Or did the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment coming upon them by day while they were at play? (98) Did they then feel secure from Allah’s plan? None feels secure from Allah’s plan except the losing people. (99) Has it not become clear to those who inherit the land after its former inhabitants that, if We willed, We could strike them for their sins and seal their hearts, so that they would not hear? (100)”
“Had the people of the towns believed and been mindful of Allah, We would certainly have opened for them blessings from heaven and earth”—that is, rain from heaven and vegetation from the earth. The basic meaning of blessing is continuity in a thing; that is, We would have continually sent them rain and vegetation, and removed drought and barrenness from them. “But they denied, so We seized them for what they used to earn”—namely, their wicked deeds.
“Did the people of the towns”—those who disbelieved and denied, meaning the people of Mecca and its surrounding areas—“feel secure from Our punishment,” that is, Our torment, “coming upon them by night while they were asleep?”
“Or did they feel secure?” The reciters of the Hijaz and Syria read it as aw amina, with the waw vowelless, while the rest read it with a fathah. “Did the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment coming upon them by day?” That is, in the daytime. Duha is the early part of the day, when the sun spreads forth. “While they were at play”—heedless and preoccupied.
“Did they then feel secure from Allah’s plan? None feels secure from Allah’s plan except the losing people.” Allah’s plan is His leading them on gradually through the blessings He bestowed upon them in their worldly life. ‘Atiyyah said: It means His seizing and punishing them.
“Has it not become clear?” Qatadah and Ya‘qub recited nahdi, with the nun as an expression of majesty, while the rest recited it with the ya, in the singular form.