Driven away, they remained for three days, while people looked on at them; then they perished.
“And when your Lord proclaimed that He would surely send against them, until the Day of Resurrection, those who would afflict them with the worst torment. Truly, your Lord is swift in punishment; yet He is surely All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“And when your Lord proclaimed” means: your Lord announced and declared. One may say ta'adhdhana or ādhana, just as one may say tawa''ada or aw'ada. Ibn Abbas said: “And when your Lord proclaimed” means: your Lord said. Mujahid said: “Your Lord commanded.” Ata said: “Your Lord decreed.”
“He would surely send against them, until the Day of Resurrection,” that is, against the Jews, “those who would afflict them with the worst torment.” Allah sent Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his community against them, to fight them until they embrace Islam or pay the jizyah. “Truly, your Lord is swift in punishment; yet He is surely All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“And We dispersed them throughout the earth into communities: among them are righteous people, and among them are others less so. We tested them with prosperity and adversity, so that perhaps they might return. (168) Then successors came after them, inheriting the Scripture and taking the fleeting gains of this lower world, saying, ‘We shall be forgiven.’ Yet whenever similar gains come their way, they take them. Was not the covenant of the Scripture taken from them—that they should say nothing about Allah except the truth? And they have studied what is in it. Yet the Abode of the Hereafter is better for those who are mindful of Allah. Will you not then understand? (169)”
“And We dispersed them” means: We scattered them. “Throughout the earth, into communities,” that is, into factions. Allah divided them, so their affairs became scattered and they never had a united cause. “Among them are righteous people.” Ibn Abbas and Mujahid said: This refers to those who lived to see the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and believed in him. “And among them are others less so,” meaning, those who remained upon disbelief.
Al-Kalbi said: “Among them are righteous people” refers to those beyond the River Awdaaf, beyond China (1); “and among them are others less so” means the Jews who are here. “We tested them with prosperity,” through fertility and well-being, “and adversity,” through drought and hardship, “so that perhaps they might return,” that they might return to the obedience of their Lord and repent.
His saying, exalted is He: “Then successors came after them,” means that after those whom We have described, “a later generation” came. A khalf is a generation that comes after another generation. Abu Hatim said: khalf, with an unvowelled lām, means offspring; its singular and plural forms are the same. Khalaf, with the lām carrying a fathah, means a replacement, whether that replacement is an offspring or a stranger.
Ibn al-Arabi said: khalaf, with a fathah, refers to the righteous, while khalf, with an unvowelled lām, refers to the wicked.
Al-Nadr ibn Shumayl said: In reference to an evil generation, khalaf and khalf have the same meaning; but with respect to