"Have they not seen what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and the earth? If We will, We could cause the earth to swallow them, or let fall upon them fragments from the heaven."

It has been said: This is a new beginning (isti’naf) intended to remind them of what they observe, which points to the perfection of His Almighty power; to alert them to the dreadful matters that may befall them—thereby removing their impossibility of resurrection, to the point that they said what they said about the one who informed them of it—and as a threat regarding that which they dared to commit.

The meaning is: Are they blind, such that they do not look at what surrounds them on all sides of the heaven and the earth, and do they not reflect on whether they are a greater creation or the heavens and the earth? "If We will, We could cause the earth to swallow them," just as We caused it to swallow Qarun, "or let fall upon them fragments," meaning pieces, "from the heaven," just as We caused them to fall upon the people of Al-Aykah due to their denying the signs after the clear proofs had appeared.

This interpretation is appropriate for the context, though connecting His saying "If We will..." to what precedes it in the way mentioned is far-fetched. In Al-Bahr, it is stated that He, the Almighty, confronted them with His dazzling power and warned them of the heaven and earth surrounding them. It is as if there is a deleted state (hal): "Do they not look at what surrounds them of heaven and earth, which is subdued under Our power, which We dispose of as We wish? If We will, We could cause the earth to swallow them..." or "Do they not look at what is before them and what is behind them, surrounding them, while they are subdued within it? If We will..." This is not free from difficulty.

The scholar Abu al-Sa’ud said: His saying "Have they not seen..." is a new beginning intended to emphasize the gravity of what they dared to do by denying the signs of Allah the Almighty, and to treat as enormous what they said regarding Him, peace and blessings be upon him, as being among the grave matters necessitating the descent of the severest punishment and the arrival of the most horrific torment without delay or postponement. His saying "If We will..." is an explanation of what is indicated by the mention of the surrounding nature of the heaven and earth, regarding the warned-of danger expected from their direction. In this is an alert that nothing remains of the causes for its occurrence except the attachment of the [Divine] Will to it. Meaning: They did what they did of the horrific evil that invites punishment, yet they did not look at what surrounded them on all sides such that they have no escape or refuge from it; "If We will," proceeding according to the demands of their crimes, "We cause the earth to swallow them..." It is not hidden that there is remoteness and weak connectivity in this compared to what you heard first, especially since what follows it does not have much consistency with what precedes it.

It occurs to me that His saying "Have they not seen..." is intended to remind them of the most obvious thing to them—such that they observe it wherever they turn and it does not depart from their sight wherever they go—which indicates the perfection of His Almighty power, removing what invited them to that mockery and attack upon the Master of the Prophets, peace be upon him and them, from their claim of the inadequacy of His Almighty power to resurrect and bring to life. This is of necessity: the One who is capable of creating those massive celestial bodies is not defeated by recreating bodies that are as nothing compared to those bodies, just as He, Glory be to Him, said: "Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them?" In this is an alert to the intensity of their ignorance, which is pointed to as "far-off misguidance."

His saying "Indeed, in that," meaning in what was mentioned of what is before them and behind them of the heaven and the earth, "is a sign," meaning a clear indication of the perfection of the power of Allah the Almighty, and that He is not incapable of resurrection after death and the scattering of the parts enclosed by them, "for every servant who turns back [to Allah]," meaning returning to his Lord, the Almighty, obedient to Him, the Majestic, for the one who turns back (munib) is not without looking at the signs of Allah the Almighty and reflecting upon them. This is like a justification for what His saying, Glory be to Him, "Have they not seen..." implies regarding the urging to use this as proof to dispel their denial of resurrection. In this is an insinuation that they are turning away from their Lord, the Almighty, and are not obedient to Him, the Majestic, and it is a transition to mentioning those who turn back to Him, the Almighty, according to one view.

His saying "If We will..." is like an interruption brought to emphasize their shortcoming and to alert that they have reached a degree in it that makes them deserving of the descent of the severest punishment and the arrival of the most horrific torment in this world, let alone the Hereafter, and that nothing remains of the causes of that except the attachment of the [Divine] Will to it, but it has not attached for a wisdom. My opinion is that this is good, and the verse admits of other meanings. And Allah the Almighty knows best the secrets of His Book.

It has been said: "that" refers to the source (masdar) of "they see" (yaraw), which is seeing (ru'yah), and it is mentioned as an interpretation of it by "looking," and what is meant by it is reflection. It has also been said that it refers to what was recited of the Revelation that speaks of what was mentioned.

Hamza, Al-Kisa'i, Ibn Wathab, Isa, Al-A’mash, and Ibn Musarrif read "yasha'," "yakhsif," and "yusqit" with the [letter] ya in all of them. Al-Kisa'i assimilated the fa into the ba in "yakhsif bihim." Abu Ali said: "That is not permissible because the ba is weaker in sound than the fa, so it is not assimilated into it, even though the ba is assimilated into the fa, such as 'adrib fulanan.' This is like how the ba is assimilated into the mim, such as 'adrib malikan,' but the mim is not assimilated into the ba, such as 'admum bik,' because the ba is lower than the mim by the lack of the nasalization (ghunnah) that is in the latter." Al-Zamakhshari said: Al-Kisa'i read "yakhsif bihim" with assimilation, and it is not strong. You know that recitation is a followed tradition (sunnah), and in it, one finds the eloquent and the most eloquent, and that is from Allah's making the Quran easy to remember. Al-Kisa'i did not assimilate it except through transmission (sama'), so there is no regard for the statement of Abu Ali nor Al-Zamakhshari.