with good—as they love it to be hastened for them—then their appointed term would surely have been decreed. Ibn Amir and Yaqub recited it as “laqada,” with the qaf and dad both vowelled with fathah, and “their term” in the accusative case; that is, He would have destroyed and caused to die anyone against whom a supplication had been made. The others recited it as “laqudiya,” with the qaf vowelled with dammah and the dad with kasrah, and “their term” in the nominative case; that is, their destruction would have been concluded, and they would all have died.
It was also said that this was revealed concerning al-Nadr ibn al-Harith when he said, “O Allah, if this is indeed the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky” (1)—the verse (al-Anfal 32). This is indicated by His saying, exalted is He: “But We leave those who do not look forward to meeting Us to wander blindly in their transgression”—that is, those who do not fear the Resurrection and the Reckoning.
Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Salihi informed us; Abu al-Husayn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Bishran informed us; Abu Ali Ismail ibn Muhammad al-Saffar narrated to us; Ahmad ibn Mansur al-Ziyadi informed us; Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us; Mamar informed us, from Hammam ibn Munabbih, that he heard Abu Hurayrah say: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “O Allah, I have made with You a covenant which You will not fail to fulfill for me. I am only a human being, and what comes from human beings may come from me. So whichever believer I have harmed, insulted, flogged, or cursed, make it for him a blessing, a purification, and a means of nearness by which You bring him near to You on the Day of Resurrection.” (2)
“And when adversity touches a person, he calls upon Us while lying on his side, sitting, or standing. But when We remove his adversity from him, he carries on as though he had never called upon Us because of an adversity that had touched him. Thus what they used to do has been made appealing to the transgressors. (12) And We certainly destroyed the generations before you when they committed wrong, though their messengers came to them with clear proofs; yet they would not believe. Thus do We recompense the criminal people. (13)”
His saying, exalted is He, “And when adversity touches a person”: that is, hardship and distress. “He calls upon Us while lying on his side”: that is, lying down on his side; “or sitting or standing,” meaning, in all his conditions, for a person cannot be in any state other than one of these. “But when We remove”—that is, dispel—“his adversity from him, he carries on as though he had never called upon Us because of an adversity that had touched him”: that is, he persists in his former way, before adversity befell him, and forgets the hardship and affliction in which he had been, as though he had never called upon Us to remove an adversity that had touched him. “Thus what they used to do has been made appealing to the transgressors”: those who exceed the proper limits in unbelief and disobedience; “what they used to do” of acts of disobedience. Ibn Jurayj said: Thus, what has been made appealing to the transgressors is their supplicating during affliction and abandoning gratitude during ease. It was also said that its meaning is: Just as He has made your deeds appear appealing to you, He made the deeds of the transgressors who came before you appear appealing to them.
His saying, exalted is He: “And We certainly destroyed the generations before you when they committed wrong”—that is, they associated partners with Allah—“and their messengers came to them with clear proofs, but they would not believe. Thus”