they are established in the land.” Qatadah said: “They are the Companions of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.” Al-Hasan said: “They are this community.” “And to Allah belongs the outcome of all affairs”: that is, the final end of all created beings’ affairs and their return to Him. In other words, every dominion besides His will be abolished, and all affairs will return to Him, with none to dispute or lay claim against Him.
“And if they deny you, then before them the people of Noah, ‘Ad, and Thamud also denied; (42) as did the people of Abraham, the people of Lot, (43) and the people of Madyan. Moses too was denied. So I granted respite to the disbelievers, then I seized them; and how severe was My reproach! (44) And how many a town did We destroy while it was steeped in wrongdoing, so that it lay fallen upon its roofs; and how many an abandoned well and lofty palace! (45)”
His saying, exalted is He, “And if they deny you,” consoles His Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “Then before them the people of Noah, ‘Ad, and Thamud also denied,” “as did the people of Abraham and the people of Lot,” “and the people of Madyan. Moses too was denied. So I granted respite to the disbelievers,” meaning, I gave them time and deferred their punishment; “then I seized them” [that is, I punished them] (1). “And how severe was My reproach!” means: My condemnation—how I condemned them for their denial by sending punishment and destruction upon them. By this He warns whoever opposes the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and denies him.
“And how many”—that is, how many—“a town did I destroy.” The people of Basra and Ya‘qub recited it with a ta’ (meaning, “I destroyed it”) (2), while the others recited, “We destroyed it,” with a nun and alif, expressing majesty. “While it was steeped in wrongdoing,” that is, while its inhabitants were wrongdoers. “So that it lay fallen” means collapsed, “upon its roofs,” that is, upon its ceilings. “And how many an abandoned well”—that is, how many an abandoned well (3), left deserted and forsaken by its people—“and a lofty palace.”
Qatadah, al-Dahhak, and Muqatil said: it means high and tall, from their saying, “He raised up his building,” when he made it high. Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, Mujahid, and ‘Ata’ said: it means plastered, derived from shayd, meaning gypsum. It was also said that the abandoned well and the lofty palace were in Yemen: the palace stood upon the summit of a mountain, while the well was at its foot. Each of them had a people who had lived in prosperity but then disbelieved, so Allah destroyed them, leaving the well and the palace deserted.
Abu Rawq related from al-Dahhak that this well was in Hadramawt, in a town called Hadura’, and that was because