Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Salihi informed us; Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Hiri informed us; Hajib ibn Ahmad al-Tusi informed us; Muhammad ibn Hammad informed us; Abu Muʿawiyah informed us from al-Aʿmash, from Abu Sufyan, from Jabir, from Umm Mubashshir, from Hafsah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “I hope that, Allah willing, no one who witnessed Badr and al-Hudaybiyyah will enter the Fire.” She said, “I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, has Allah, exalted is He, not said: “There is none of you but will come to it. This is, for your Lord, an inevitability decreed”?’” He said, “Have you not heard Him say: ‘Then We will save those who feared Allah and leave the wrongdoers within it, fallen on their knees’?” (1)

“When Our clear verses are recited to them, those who disbelieve say to those who believe, ‘Which of the two parties is better in residence and finer in assembly?’ How many a generation before them We destroyed, who were superior in furnishings and appearance.” (73–74)

His saying, exalted is He, “When Our clear verses are recited to them,” means: clear and evident. “Those who disbelieve” refers to al-Nadr ibn al-Harith and his fellow men among Quraysh; “say to those who believe” refers to the poor (2) Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. They were emaciated, lived harshly, and wore shabby clothes, whereas the idolaters groomed their hair, anointed their heads with oil, and wore silk garments. They therefore said to the believers, “Which of the two parties is better in residence?”—that is, in dwelling and habitation, the place where one resides.

Ibn Kathir recited it as muqām (residence), with a u-vowel on the letter mīm, meaning: residence. (3)

“And finer in assembly,” that is, in gathering; nādī has the same meaning. Allah, exalted is He, answered them, saying: “How many a generation before them We destroyed, who were superior in furnishings”—that is, possessions and wealth. Muqatil said: clothing and garments—“and appearance.” Most of the Quran reciters read it with a hamzah, meaning: appearance, derived from seeing. Ibn ʿAmir, Abu Jaʿfar, and Nafiʿ—other than Warsh—read it as rayyan, with a doubled yāʾ and without a hamzah. It has two interpretations: the first is the same as the former reading, with the hamzah omitted; the second is derived from rayy, the opposite of thirst, meaning to be quenched by blessings. For the person who lives in luxury visibly bears the freshness of blessing, while the poor person visibly bears the marks of poverty.