“Or do their minds command them to say this, or are they a transgressing people?” (32)

“So Allah has been gracious to us,” through forgiveness, “and protected us from the punishment of the scorching fire.” Al-Kalbi said: “The punishment of the Fire.” Al-Hasan said: “Al-Samum is one of the names of Hell.”

“Formerly, in the life of this world, we used to call upon Him,” devoting worship sincerely to Him. “Indeed, He”—the reciters of Medina and al-Kisa’i read it as annahu, with an open initial alif, meaning “because He is” or “that He is”; the others read it with a kasrah, as the beginning of a new statement—“is the Most Kind, the Most Merciful.” Ibn Abbas said that “the Most Kind” means the Gentle. Al-Dahhak said: the One who is true to what He has promised.

“So remind,” O Muhammad, the people of Mecca by means of the Quran. “For by the grace of your Lord,” through His mercy and protection, “you are neither a soothsayer,” who invents speech and foretells what will happen tomorrow without revelation, “nor a madman.” This was revealed concerning those who divided up the mountain passes of Mecca, accusing the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, of soothsaying, magic, madness, and poetry.

“Or do they say”—rather, they say, referring to those dividers who spoke by conjecture—“He is a poet; we await for him the calamity of death”: the events and vicissitudes of time, so that he may die and perish as the poets before him perished, and his companions may disperse. They said: “His father died young, and we hope that his death will be like his father’s death.” Al-Manun may mean time, and it may mean death; both are so called because they bring one’s appointed term to an end.

“Say, ‘Then wait,’” that is, wait for my death, “for I too am among those who wait” [among those who await] (2), until Allah’s command comes upon you. They were then punished by the sword on the Day of Badr.

“Or do their minds command them” their intellects, “to say this?” The leading men of Quraysh were described as possessing sound minds and intellects, so Allah disparaged their intellects when they failed to distinguish knowledge of truth from falsehood. “Or are they”—rather, they are—“a transgressing people.”