“Has he fabricated a lie against Allah, or is he possessed by madness? Rather, those who do not believe in the Hereafter are in torment and far-removed error. (8) Have they not seen what lies before them and behind them of the heaven and the earth? If We will, We may cause the earth to swallow them, or make fragments of the sky fall upon them. Surely in that is a sign for every servant who turns back to Allah. (9) And We certainly bestowed upon David a favor from Us: ‘O mountains, echo praises with him, and you birds as well.’ And We made iron pliant for him. (10)”
“And those who disbelieve,” denying the Resurrection and marveling at it, say: “Shall we direct you to a man who tells you”—meaning Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—“that when you have been utterly torn to pieces,” cut up in every manner, scattered in every direction, and become dust, “you will indeed be in a new creation”? That is, he tells you that you will be created anew. “Has he fabricated a lie against Allah, or is he possessed by madness?” They mean: Does he make a false claim, or is he mad? The interrogative particle is prefixed to the connecting hamzah, which is therefore pronounced with a fathah.
Allah, exalted is He, replies to them: “Rather, those who do not believe in the Hereafter are in torment and far-removed error”—far from the truth in this world. “Have they not seen what lies before them and behind them of the heaven and the earth?” Thus, they should know that, wherever they may be, My earth and My heaven encompass them; they cannot escape their bounds, and I have power over them. “If We will, We may cause the earth to swallow them.” Al-Kisa’i recited this with the f sound assimilated into the following b sound. “Or make fragments of the sky fall upon them.” Hamzah and Al-Kisa’i recited, “If He wills, He will cause the earth to swallow them, or He will make fragments fall,” in the third person, because Allah had been mentioned previously; the other reciters read these verbs in the first-person plural.
“Surely in that”—that is, in the heaven and earth which you see—“is a sign” indicating Our power to resurrect, “for every servant who turns back,” who repents and returns to Allah with his heart.
His saying, exalted is He, “And We certainly bestowed upon David a favor from Us,” means prophethood and the Scripture. It is also said to mean kingship. It is further said to mean everything with which he was uniquely favored, such as his beautiful voice, the making of iron pliant, and other gifts. “O mountains”—that is, We said: O mountains—“echo praises,” meaning glorify Allah, “with him,” whenever he glorified Him. It is also said that the word is an intensive form derived from returning: that is, repeat with him. Al-Qutaybi said that its origin is from a term for traveling throughout the day and stopping at night, as though He had said: Spend the entire day glorifying Allah with him. Wahb said: Lament with him.