ﲉ ﲊ ﲋ ﲌ ﲍ ﲎ ﲏ ﲐ ﲑ ﲒ ﲓ ﲔ ﲕ ﲖ ﲗ ﲘ ﲙ
But those who wronged among them changed [the words] to a statement other than that which had been said to them. So We sent upon them a punishment from the sky for the wrong that they were doing.
Tafsir
Verse range: 7:162
"But those who wronged among them substituted..." for the sake of additional clarification, meaning: those among them who wronged substituted what they were commanded of repentance and seeking forgiveness—as they turned away from it—and placed in its stead another saying which held no good, different from what they were told and commanded to say. "Different" (ghayra) is an adjective for "the saying." The difference is explicitly stated, despite the word "substitution" already indicating it, to confirm the contradiction and to stipulate the difference in every aspect.
"...so We sent down upon them..." in the wake of their actions, without delay, "...a punishment (rijz) from the sky..." a torment originating from it; it is the plague, according to a narration.
"...because they used to do wrong." That is, because of their persistent wrongdoing, both past and present. This carries the same meaning as what is found in [Surah] Al-Baqarah, because the pronoun in "upon them" refers to those who wronged. "Sending" (irsal) from above is "sending down" (inzal). The explicit mention of this justification here is because the ruling is linked to the pronoun rather than the relative clause involving "wrongdoing," as it was in Al-Baqarah. As for the justification provided there by "transgression" (fisq) after indicating "wrongdoing" (zulm) as the cause, it is to signal that such an act is indeed transgression, a departure from obedience, and an exaggeration in wrongdoing, and that their punishment was for all the abominations they committed, as has been said.
Al-Qutb said regarding the reason for the difference: "Sending" implies abundance, unlike "sending down," as if He sent down a small amount of punishment then caused it to become great. Furthermore, the benefit in mentioning wrongdoing and transgression in both places is to indicate that both were present in them. You have already been presented with the aspects of the differences between the verse in Al-Baqarah and this verse, which will benefit you to recall, so remember them.
