“No fresh reminder comes to them from the Most Merciful without their turning away from it. They have denied it, so there will come to them the tidings of that which they used to ridicule. Have they not considered the earth—how many noble kinds We have caused to grow therein? Surely in that is a sign, yet most of them would not believe. And indeed, your Lord is surely the Almighty, the Most Merciful. And when your Lord called Moses: ‘Go to the wrongdoing people.’” (5–10)

“No fresh reminder comes to them”—that is, no admonition or reminder—“from the Most Merciful,” “fresh” meaning that its revelation is newly sent down; thus, it is new with respect to its descent. Al-Kalbi said: “Whenever something of the Quran is revealed after something else, it is newer than what came before it.” “Without their turning away from it”—that is, from believing in it.

“They have denied it, so there will come to them”—that is, there shall soon come to them—“the tidings”: its reports and consequences, “of that which they used to ridicule.”

“Have they not considered the earth—how many noble kinds We have caused to grow therein?” That is, every variety and species of fine vegetation which people and livestock eat. One says, “a noble date palm,” when its fruit is wholesome, and “a noble she-camel,” when its milk is plentiful. Al-Sha‘bi said: “People are among the vegetation of the earth: whoever enters Paradise is noble, and whoever enters the Fire is base.” (1)

“Surely in that”—in what I have mentioned—“is a sign”: an indication of My existence, My oneness, and the perfection of My power. “Yet most of them would not believe,” that is, would not affirm the truth. In other words, My prior knowledge concerning them had already decreed that most of them would not believe. Sibawayh said: Here, the word “would” is supplementary; its sense is: “Most of them do not believe.”

“And indeed, your Lord is surely the Almighty”: the Almighty in His retribution against His enemies; “the Most Merciful”: the Possessor of mercy toward His devoted servants.

His words, exalted is He, “And when your Lord called Moses”: Remember, O Muhammad, when your Lord called Moses, when he saw the tree and the fire: “Go to the wrongdoing people”—meaning, those who wronged themselves through unbelief and disobedience, and wronged the Children of Israel by enslaving them and subjecting them to grievous torment.