Tafsir of Hud 11:116

"Why were there not" (the particle lawla implies incitement, containing within it a metaphorical sense of lamentation, meaning "Would that there had been...").

"Among the generations" (meaning the groups of people who were joined together in one time).

"Before you" (those who possessed) "a remainder" (baqiyyah), meaning: those possessing a remaining quality of discernment and intellect, or those possessing virtue, based on baqiyyah being a noun for virtue, with the ha (at the end) indicating transition. This word is applied metaphorically, derived from the "remainder" that a person selects for himself and sets aside from what benefits him. Hence, it is said: "So-and-so is from the baqiyyah (remainder) of the people," meaning from their elite. It is by this that the verse of the Hamasa is explained: "If you commit a sin, your baqiyyah (remainder/best of you) comes to me; therefore, no sin of yours escapes me." From this also comes their saying: "In corners there are hidden things, and among men there are remainders (virtuous ones)."

It is permissible that baqiyyah is in the sense of baqwa (endurance/abstinence), like taqiyah in the sense of taqwa (piety). That is: "Would that there had been among them those who possessed a restraint upon their souls, safeguarding them from what necessitates the wrath of Allah the Exalted and His punishment." It is apparent that in this sense it is a verbal noun (masdar). It is said to be an ism masdar (a noun acting as a verbal noun). What supports it being a masdar is that it was recited as baqiyah (with the form of the marrah, a single instance), and it is a masdar of baqahu yabqihi (to await/watch), like ramahu yarmihi. In the Hadith, Mu'adh ibn Jabal said: "We baqayna (awaited) the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) when he delayed the Isha prayer, until one who thought thought he would not come out..." Mu'adh meant: "We waited for him." As for that which is from baqa' (the opposite of annihilation), its verb is baqiya yabqa (to remain), like radiya yarda. The meaning according to this reading is: "Would that there had been among them those who possessed a state of watching for fear of Allah the Exalted and His retribution." It was also read as baqiyah (with the ya lightened), as an active participle (ism fa'il) from baqiya, like shajiya (distressed) becoming shajiyah.

Abu Ja'far and Shaybah read baqiyah with a damma on the ba and a sukoon on the qaf.

"Who forbade corruption in the land" (that which occurred among them, as mentioned in their stories). Corruption (fasad) in Al-Bahr is explained as disbelief and the sins associated with it.

"Except a few of those whom We saved among them." This is a disconnected exception (istithna' munqati'), meaning: "But a few of them We saved, because they were forbidding." It is also said: "But a few of those whom We saved from the generations forbade corruption, while the rest were abandoners of the prohibition." The min (among) in the first instance is explanatory (bayaniyyah), not partitive (tab'idiyyah), because salvation is only for the forbidders alone, based on His saying, the Exalted: "We saved those who forbade evil, and We seized those who did wrong." Al-Zamakhshari favored this. He rejected the connected exception, as the surface of the speech would imply, because it necessitates a corruption of meaning; it would be an incitement to those with "a remainder" to forbid corruption except for the few who were saved among them. Then he said: "If you say: In inciting them to forbid corruption, there is a meaning of denying its existence among them, as if it were said: 'There were not among the generations any possessors of a remainder except for a few,' then it would be a connected exception and a sound meaning."

"And followed those who did wrong" (they are the abandoners of forbidding corruption) "that which they were given luxury in" (ma utrifu fihi—that in which they were given comfort, in terms of wealth, a pleasant life, and worldly desires. The root of taraf is to expand in luxury). From Al-Farra: the meaning of utrifu is that they were accustomed to turfah, which is luxury. It is said: utrifu means they became tyrannical, from "the blessings made him atrafat (tyrannical)." The fi is thus causal or metaphorical. It is objected that this meaning is contrary to the famous one, even if it is valid here. The meaning of "following" that is the concern for it and the abandonment of others—meaning they focused on that.

"And they were criminals" (meaning those who committed crimes other than that, or disbelievers characterized by the greatest of crimes). Each of these two interpretations has its proponents. Some carried "those who did wrong" to include both the abandoners of forbidding corruption and the practitioners of it.

"And they were criminals" is an addition to "followed those who did wrong," with a distinction between them. It is also permitted that the conjunction is explanatory, in the sense of "and they were criminals because of that following."