al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali had informed him that ‘Ali had informed him that the Messenger of Allah came to him and Fatimah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, one night and said, “Will you two not pray?” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, our souls are in Allah’s Hand; when He wills to awaken us, He awakens us.” The Messenger of Allah turned away when I said that to him and gave me no reply. Then I heard him, as he was leaving, striking his thigh and saying: “Yet man is more prone to dispute than anything else.” (1)
“And nothing has prevented people from believing, when guidance came to them, and from seeking their Lord’s forgiveness, except that the fate of the former peoples should come upon them, or that the punishment should come upon them before their very eyes. (55) And We do not send the messengers except as bearers of glad tidings and warners. Yet those who disbelieve dispute by means of falsehood, seeking thereby to undermine the truth; and they take My signs and that of which they are warned in ridicule. (56) And who is more unjust than one who is reminded of the signs of his Lord, but turns away from them and forgets what his own hands have sent forth? Indeed, We have placed coverings over their hearts, lest they understand it, and deafness in their ears. Even if you call them to guidance, they will never be guided. (57)”
His saying, exalted is He: “And nothing has prevented people from believing, when guidance came to them”: that is, the Quran, Islam, and the clarification from Allah, exalted is He. It was also said that it refers to the Messenger.
“And from seeking their Lord’s forgiveness, except that the fate of the former peoples should come upon them”: that is, Our established way of destroying them if they do not believe.
It was also said: nothing prevented them except their demand that the fate of the former peoples should come upon them—that is, that they should witness the punishment—as they said: “O Allah, if this is indeed the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky, or bring upon us a painful punishment.” [al-Anfal 8:32]
“Or that the punishment should come upon them before their very eyes”: Ibn ‘Abbas said: openly, face to face. Mujahid said: suddenly. Abu Ja‘far and the Kufan reciters read it with a dammah on both the qaf and the ba’, as a plural meaning: various kinds of punishment, one type after another.
“And We do not send the messengers except as bearers of glad tidings and warners. Yet those who disbelieve dispute by means of falsehood”: their disputation consists of such statements as: “Has Allah sent a human being as a messenger?” [al-Isra 17:94], and, “Why was this Quran not sent down upon a great man from one of the two cities?” [al-Zukhruf 43:31], and similar claims.
“Seeking thereby to undermine”: that is, to invalidate, “the truth.” The root meaning of undermining is slipping; that is, they seek thereby to remove the truth. “And they take My signs and that of which they are warned in ridicule”: this contains an ellipsis, meaning: they take that by which they are warned—namely, the Quran—as ridicule, that is, mockery.
“And who is more unjust than one who is reminded”: that is, admonished, “of the signs of his Lord, but turns away from them”: he turns aside from them, abandons them, and does not believe.