“Soon We shall brand him upon the snout.” (16)

“Indeed, We have tested them as We tested the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would surely harvest it in the morning.” (17)

“When Our verses are recited to him, he says, ‘Legends of the former peoples.’” That is, in return for the blessings of children and wealth bestowed upon him, he disbelieved in Our verses. It has also been said that the meaning is: “Is it because he possesses wealth and sons that you obey him?” (1)

Whoever recites it as a declarative statement, its meaning is: Do not obey every contemptible habitual swearer because “he possesses wealth and sons” (2)—that is, do not obey him on account of his wealth and sons—when Our verses are recited to him, he says, “Legends of the former peoples.”

Then He threatened him, saying: “Soon We shall brand him upon the snout.” The snout means the nose. Abu al-Aliyah and Mujahid said: That is, We shall blacken his face and give him a mark in the Hereafter by which he will be recognized: the blackness of his face.

Al-Farra’ said: The snout was specifically mentioned for the branding because it is used in the sense of the face; part of a thing may be used to express the whole. (3)

Ibn Abbas said: We shall strike his nose with the sword, and this indeed happened to him on the Day of Badr. (4) Qatadah said: We shall attach to him something that will never leave him.

Al-Qutaybi said: When one man insults another with an abominable insult, the Arabs say, “He has branded him with a mark of evil.” That is, he has attached to him a disgrace that will never leave him, just as a brand does not disappear and its trace does not fade. Allah has added to the faults already mentioned a disgrace that will never leave him in this world or the Hereafter, like a brand upon the snout.

Al-Dahhak and al-Kisa’i said: We shall cauterize his face.

“Indeed, We have tested them,” meaning, We tested the people of Mecca with drought and hunger, “as We tested,” that is, tried, “the owners of the garden.” Muhammad ibn Marwan narrated from al-Kalbi, from Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas concerning the saying of Allah, Exalted is He, “Indeed, We have tested them as We tested the owners of the garden”: He said: There was a garden in Yemen called al-Dirwan, two farsakhs—about six miles—from Sanaa. Travellers would pass through it. It had been planted by devout people, and it belonged to a man who died, leaving it to his three sons, and he would