—and because of this, Allah, exalted is He, revealed: “We certainly know that what they say grieves you.” (1)

“We certainly know that what they say”—namely, that you are a liar—“grieves you. Yet it is not you that they deny; rather, it is Allah’s signs that the wrongdoers reject.” Nafi and al-Kisa'i recited it without gemination, while the other reciters read it with gemination, in the sense of declaring someone a liar. To declare someone a liar is to ascribe falsehood to him and say, “You have lied.” To find someone to be a liar means to discover that he is lying. The Arabs say, “I found the land barren,” or, “I found it fertile,” when they find it barren or fertile.

He says: They do not accuse you of lying in secret, for they have known your truthfulness in the past. Rather, they deny My revelation and reject My signs, as He says: “They denied them, though their souls were convinced of them” (The Ants, 94).

“Messengers before you were also rejected, but they patiently endured rejection and persecution until Our help came to them. None can alter the words of Allah. And there has already come to you some account of the messengers (34). If their turning away is grievous to you, then if you are able to seek a tunnel into the earth or a ladder into the sky and bring them a sign, then do so. Had Allah willed, He would have gathered them all upon guidance. So do not be among the ignorant (35).”

“Messengers before you were also rejected”: their people rejected them, just as Quraysh has rejected you. “But they patiently endured rejection and persecution until Our help came to them”—by the punishment of those who rejected them. “None can alter the words of Allah”: none can overturn what He has decreed. In His Book, He has decreed victory for His prophets, peace be upon them. He says: “Our word has already preceded for Our servant-messengers: they will surely be helped, and Our forces will surely prevail” (The Ranks, 171–172). He also says: “Indeed, We surely support Our messengers” (The Forgiver, 51), and: “Allah has decreed: I shall surely prevail, I and My messengers” (The Pleading Woman, 21). Al-Hasan ibn al-Fadl said: There is no breach of His promises. (2)

“And there has already come to you some account of the messengers.” The preposition min is supplementary here, as when one says, “We have received rain.”

“If their turning away is grievous to you”: that is, if it weighs heavily upon you and pains you that they have turned away from faith in you. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was exceedingly eager for his people to believe. Whenever they asked for a sign, he wished that Allah, exalted is He, would show it to them, hoping for their faith. So Allah, glorified and exalted is He, said: “If you are able to seek a tunnel”—that is, to seek and make a tunnel, a passage.