The commentators said: Gabriel took hold of the two side-posts of the city gate, then gave them a single cry (1), and at once they lay lifeless.

“Alas for the servants! No messenger ever came to them without their mocking him. Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, never to return to them? Yet every one of them will be brought before Us. A sign for them is the dead earth: We bring it to life and bring forth grain from it, from which they eat.” (30–33)

“Alas for the servants!” Ikrimah said: This means, “How greatly they will regret what they did to themselves.” Regret is intense remorse. There are two interpretations of this verse. The first is that Allah, exalted is He, says: “Alas, regret, and sorrow for the servants on the Day of Resurrection, when they failed to believe in the messengers.”

The other is that these are the words of those who perished. Abu al-‘Aliyah said: When they beheld the punishment, they said, “Alas!”—that is, “Regret over the servants,” meaning the three messengers in whom they did not believe. Thus, they wished to believe at a time when faith would no longer benefit them.

Al-Azhari said: Regret is not literally called upon; rather, calling upon it serves to alert those being addressed. It was also said that the Arabs would say, “O my regret!” and “What a wonder!” by way of intensification; for them, such a call is used to draw attention. It is as though one were saying, “O wonder, is this your time? O regret, has your moment come?”

The true meaning is that this is a time for regret and amazement. He then explained the reason for this regret and remorse, saying: “No messenger ever came to them without their mocking him.”

“Have they not seen”—that is, have they not been informed, referring to the people of Mecca—“how many generations We destroyed before them, never to return to them?” A generation is the people of every age; they are called so because they are joined together in existence. “Never to return to them,” meaning, they do not return to this world, so that they may take a lesson from them.

“Yet every one of them will be brought before Us.” ‘Asim and Hamzah recited lammā with the consonant doubled here, as well as in Surah al-Zukhruf and Surah al-Tariq. Ibn ‘Amir agreed with them except in Surah al-Zukhruf, while Abu Ja‘far agreed with them in Surah al-Tariq. The others recited it without doubling. Those who doubled it understood in as a negation and lammā as meaning “except,” giving the sense: “There is none except that all will be brought together.” Those who did not double it understood in as an emphatic particle and mā as an additional particle, giving the sense: “All of them will be brought before Us.”

“A sign for them is the dead earth: We bring it to life” with rain, “and bring forth grain from it,” meaning wheat, barley, and whatever