Tafsir of Nuh 71:25

"Because of their sins": That is, on account of their sins.

"They were drowned": By the flood, and not on account of anything else. Min (from/of) is causal, and mā is extra, placed between the preposition and the noun it governs to emphasize the magnitude of the sins as being among the gravest of what is forbidden. Whoever does not consider it extra treats it as an indefinite noun and considers khatī’ātihim (their sins) as a substitute for it. Ibn ‘Aṭiyyah claimed that min denotes the starting point of an action (origin), which is as you see [i.e., weak]. Abū Rajā’ read it as khaṭīyātihim, changing the hamza into a yā’ and merging it with the yā’. Al-Jaḥdarī and ‘Ubayd, on the authority of Abū ‘Amr, read it as khaṭī’atihim in the singular form, with a hamza. Al-Ḥasan, ‘Īsā, and al-A‘raj—with a difference of opinion among them—and Abū ‘Amr read it as khaṭāyāhum, a broken plural. ‘Abd Allāh read it as min khaṭī’ātihim mā ughriqū, with an additional mā between khaṭī’ātihim and ughriqū, interpreted as a verbal particle, meaning: "Because of their sins [was] their drowning." Zayd ibn ‘Alī read it as ghurriqū, with shadda instead of the hamza, both forms indicating the causative of drowning.

"Then they were admitted into a Fire": This is the fire of the barzakh (the interval between death and resurrection), meaning the punishment of the grave. Whoever dies in water, by fire, or is consumed by beasts or birds, for example, undergoes what the buried undergo of punishment. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: "They were drowning on one side and burning with fire on the other." Ibn al-Anbārī recited:

Creation is gathered at times and scattered, And events are kinds possessing stages. Do not be surprised at opposites when they gather, For Allah joins between water and fire.

It is possible that it refers to the Fire of the Hereafter. The sequence (implied by fa in fa-udkhilū) regarding the first interpretation is manifest. Regarding this one, it is because of the disregard for the time between the drowning and the admittance; it is as if the interposition of something disregarded is likened to the absence of any interposition at all. It is also permissible that the fa of sequence is borrowed to denote causality, for the effect is like the sequence of a cause, even if it is delayed due to the absence of a condition or the presence of an obstacle. Indefiniteness in "a Fire" is either to emphasize its greatness and terror, or because the Almighty has prepared for them a specific kind of fire according to their sins. It is not hidden what beauty is found in ughriqū fa-udkhilū nāran (they were drowned, then admitted into a fire) that cannot be surpassed; may Allah be praised for the excellence of the Revelation.

"And they found for themselves no helpers other than Allah": That is, not one of them found a single helper. This contains an allusion to their taking of deities other than Him, Glorified and Exalted be He, and that those deities are incapable of helping them, as well as a mockery of them.