ﲽ ﲾ ﲿ ﳀ ﳁ ﳂ ﳃ ﳄ ﳅ ﳆ ﳇ ﳈ ﳉ ﳊ ﳋ ﳌ ﳍ ﳎ ﳏ ﳐ ﳑ
And never would your Lord have destroyed the cities until He had sent to their mother a messenger reciting to them Our verses. And We would not destroy the cities except while their people were wrongdoers.
Tafsir
Verse range: 28:59
{And never would your Lord destroy the cities...}
This is an exposition of the Divine providence following the description of the destruction of the aforementioned cities. That is, it was neither sound nor upright—nor was it within the scope of His past decree and previous judgment—to destroy cities before sending a warning. Rather, it was His Sunnah (practice), Exalted and Majestic is He, not to destroy them until He had sent a messenger to their "mother"—meaning their origin and their principal city to which those surrounding cities return—reciting to them Our verses, which speak the truth, and inviting them toward it through encouragement and intimidation.
He, glory be to Him, did not destroy them until He sent a messenger to them to establish the proof and cut off any excuse, so that they might not say: "Had You but sent us a messenger, we would have followed Your verses." The sending was to the "Mother of Cities" (Umm al-Qura) because the inhabitants of a major city, the seat of a kingdom, and a place of sagacity and intelligence, are more receptive to the call and more noble.
'Abd ibn Humayd and Ibn Abi Hatim recorded from Qatadah that the "Mother of Cities" is Makkah, and the Messenger is Muhammad, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him; thus, the intent by "the cities" is those cities which existed during his time, peace be upon him. However, the first interpretation is more primary. The shift to the "We" (the royal nun) in "Our verses" (ayatina) is to cultivate reverence and instill awe. It was read as fi immiha with a kasra on the hamza, following the vowel of the mim.
{And We would not destroy the cities unless their people were wrongdoers.}
This is a conjunction linked to {And never would your Lord destroy the cities...}. It is an exception for emphasis (istithna' mufragh) from the most general circumstances. That is, We would not be destroyers of the inhabitants of the cities—after We have sent a messenger to their mother to call them to the truth and guide them to it—in any circumstance whatsoever, except in the state of their being wrongdoers by belying Our Messenger and disbelieving in Our verses. Thus, the sending of a messenger is the boundary for the invalidity of destruction according to the Divine law, not a condition for its occurrence such that destruction must necessarily follow the sending.
