140 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Dunyā narrated to us. He said: My father related to me, from Hishām ibn Muḥammad, from his father, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

“‘There overtook them the ṣayḥa’—the Cry (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:40). That cry was a ṣāʿiqa (thunder-bolt), and every punishment from Allah is, in truth, a thunder-bolt. They were all burned to cinders, so that they were found in their dwellings lying prone, reduced to ashes—extinguished, motionless, unable to stir. He likened them to ashes until they actually became ashes.

Allah, exalted is He, says: ‘So when Our command came, We saved Ṣāliḥ and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us’ (Hūd 11:66), meaning: by a favor from Us. ⦗93⦘ ‘And those who had wronged were seized by the Cry, and they lay lifeless in their homes’ (Hūd 11:67); ‘as though they had never lived there at all’ (al-Aʿrāf 7:92)—that is, they were not allowed to dwell there for any length of time.”