Tafsir of Al-Ma'idah 5:22

They said, "O Moses, indeed within it is a people of tyrants," meaning those of intense might and dominance, such that resisting them is impossible, and one cannot grasp them by the forelock. "Al-Jabbar" (the tyrant) is an intensive form derived from the trilateral verb "jabara" according to linguistic analogy, not from "ajbarahu" (to compel), as is the case with "al-hassas" (the one who senses) from "al-ihsas" (sensation). It refers to one who subjugates people and compels them—whoever they may be—to do whatever he wants, regardless of what it is. In the context of stinginess, it signifies someone whose hand does not reach out due to greed. These people were of the giants, the remnants of the people of 'Ad, and they possessed bodies unlike any others. Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam recorded in Futuh Misr on the authority of Ibn Hujayra, who said: "Seventy men from the people of Moses, peace be upon him, sought shade in the skull of one of the giants." Al-Bayhaqi recorded in Shu'ab al-Iman on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam: "It reached me that a hyena and its cubs were seen lying in the eye socket of one of them." There are other such reports, which are, in my view, like the stories of 'Uj ibn 'Unaq—they are nothing but myths.

"And we will never enter it until they depart from it," through others fighting them or by any cause through which Allah the Exalted might expel them, for we have no strength to expel them from it. This is a refusal to fight in the most absolute manner.

"But if they depart from it," for any reason over which we have no control, "then we will enter it."

They brought this conditional statement, even though its content was understood from what preceded, as an explicit statement of their intent and a stipulation that their refusal to enter was solely due to the presence of those people there. They used a nominal sentence in the apodosis (the result clause) beginning with "inna," indicating the certainty and firmness of their entry once the condition is fulfilled, and to manifest their complete desire for it and for compliance with the command.