Tafsir of Ash-Shu`ara' 26:208

The prepositional phrase [in laha] is connected to a suppressed predicate that has been placed forward, while mundhirun (warners) is the subject. The sentence is in the state of being an adverbial descriptor (hal) for qaryah (town). This is what Abu Hayyan stated.

He then said: "Another parsing is that laha is in the position of the hal, and mundhirun is in the nominative case due to the prepositional phrase; meaning, 'except that there existed for it warners.' In this case, the hal arrives as a singular term, not a sentence. The arrival of a hal from a negated subject is like saying, 'I did not pass by anyone except standing' (ma marartu bi-ahadin illa qa'iman)."

In both interpretations, the arrival of the hal from an indefinite noun is acceptable, based on what has been said regarding its generality due to its occurrence within the scope of negation, with the addition of min preceding it. It is as if this speaker made the generality a justification for the arrival of the hal, by analogy to their making it a justification for beginning a sentence with an indefinite noun, due to the sharing of the underlying cause.

Al-Zamakhshari held the view that laha mundhirun is a sentence in the position of an adjective (sifah) for qaryah. Abu Hayyan did not permit the sentence occurring after illa (except) to be an adjective. He then said: "The school of the majority is that an adjective does not come after illa while relying upon the particle of exception, such as ma ja'ani ahadun illa rakiban (No one came to me except riding). If [a case] is heard that contradicts this, it is interpreted as a substitute (badal), meaning 'except a man who is riding'."

The evidence for the correctness of this school of thought is that the Arabs say, ma marartu bi-ahadin illa qa'iman (I did not pass by anyone except standing), and it is not preserved in their speech to say, ma marartu bi-ahadin illa qa'imun (I did not pass by anyone except standing [in the nominative]). If the sentence were in the position of an adjective for an indefinite noun, then the singular term would have appeared after illa as an adjective for it. If the adjective is not relying upon the particle, the adjective comes after illa, such as ma ja'ani illa Zaydun khayrun min 'Amrin (No one came to me except Zayd, who is better than 'Amr), for the estimation is: "No one who is better than 'Amr came to me except Zayd."

So, reflect upon this. Regardless, the pronoun in laha (for it) refers to the qaryah (town), which, as you have heard, is collective in meaning. It is as if it were said: "And We did not destroy the towns except that they had warners," in the sense that there are warners for all of them, whether it be that for every town among them there was one warner or more.