Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:136

"Then We took retribution from them": That is, We willed retribution against them. It is interpreted in this way so that the phrase "so We drowned them" may be a consequence of it; otherwise, the drowning itself is the very essence of the retribution, and it would not be correct to make it a consequence thereof.

It is also permitted that the fa (the 'so' or 'then') is tafsiriyyah (explicative), as some have affirmed, like in the Almighty’s saying: "And Noah called to his Lord, and said, 'My Lord...'" (11:45). In that case, there is no need for interpretation.

"In the yamm (the sea)": As has been narrated from Ibn Abbas and al-Suddi—may Allah be pleased with them—it applies to that which is salty and bitter, as well as to a large river of fresh water. It does not have a broken plural nor a sound plural. Al-Layth said: It is the sea whose depth cannot be reached. It is also said: It is the deep expanse of the sea, and it is well-known to be Arabic. Ibn Qutaybah said: It is Syriac, and its origin, as is said, is yima, which was Arabized to what you see. The view that it is a proper name for the specific sea in which Pharaoh drowned is weak because they [the people] denied Our signs.

"Because they denied Our signs": This is the justification for the drowning; meaning that the cause of the drowning and what made them deserve that punishment was the denial of the great signs. This is what necessitated that the Will of Allah Almighty attach to it in a definitive manner. This does not contradict the deriving of the will from the breach of covenant, for the denial is the final cause and the immediate reason, and there is no impediment to the multiplicity of causes and their arrangement one upon another—as stated by al-Shihab, and the light of truth shines forth from it.

The Sheikh of Islam said: Although the fa indicates the sequence of the drowning upon the preceding breach of covenant, he explicitly stated the reason to signal that the axis of all of this is the denial of the signs of Allah Almighty and what was linked to it, so that this might be a deterrent to the listeners against denying the signs that appeared at the hands of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. End quote. And within this is a discussion that is not hidden.

"And they were heedless of them": The pronominal suffix refers to the signs. "Heedlessness" is a metaphor for lack of remembrance and lack of concern; meaning, because of their denial of the signs and their lack of concern for them, and their lack of reflection upon them, they became like those who are entirely heedless of them. Otherwise, one who denies a matter cannot be heedless of it, due to the contradiction between the two states. In this is an indication that whoever witnesses the likes of such signs should not deny them while having knowledge of them.

From Ibn Abbas—may Allah be pleased with them both—it is narrated that the pronoun refers to the retribution, and what is intended by it is the drowning, as is indicated by what precedes it. Based on this, it is permissible for the sentence to be a hal (state-describing clause), implying a hidden qad (an emphatic particle), and in that case, there is no metaphor in the "heedlessness." However, the first view is more appropriate, as is not hidden.