Surah Al-Qasas: (58 - 59) And how many a town We destroyed...

This is the second answer to that doubt.

After Allah the Exalted clarified the blessings bestowed upon the people of Makkah, He followed it up with what He revealed concerning the past nations who enjoyed the blessings of this world. When they denied the Messengers, Allah removed those blessings from them.

The objective is that when the disbelievers said, "We will not believe," fearing the loss of worldly blessings, Allah the Exalted clarified to them that persistence in refusing faith is what removes these blessings, not embracing faith.

Al-Zamakhshari (author of Al-Kashshaf) said: Batr (wantonness/insolence) is the poor handling of wealth, which is failing to uphold Allah's right therein.

The phrase "and their livelihood was established" (wa intaṣabat maʿīshatuhā) can be interpreted in two ways:

1. By omitting the preposition and connecting the verb directly, like in the verse: {And Moses chose from his people seventy men} (Al-A'raf: 155).
2. By presupposing the omission of the time noun, meaning the original structure was "their days of livelihood were established in wantonness" (baṭirat ayyāmu maʿīshatihā).
3. By implying the meaning of batr as "disbelief" (kafarat).

As for His saying: {And those are their dwellings, not inhabited after them except for a little}, there are several interpretations regarding this exception:

1. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: None inhabited them except travelers passing by for a day or an hour.
2. It is possible that the ill omen of the sins of the destroyed people remained in their dwellings. Thus, whoever inhabited them from their descendants remained only for a short time, and We became their inheritors after the destruction of their inhabitants. When a thing has no specific owner, it is said to be the inheritance of Allah, as He is the one who remains after the annihilation of His creation.

Furthermore, when the Exalted mentioned that He destroyed those towns due to the wantonness (batr) of their inhabitants, it is as if a questioner raised two points:

1. Why did Allah not destroy the disbelievers before the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), even though they were steeped in disbelief and obstinacy?
2. Why did He not destroy them after the mission of Muhammad (peace be upon him), given the people's persistence in disbelief in Allah and denial of Muhammad (peace be upon him)?

He answered the first question with: {And your Lord would not destroy the towns until He had sent to their mother-town a Messenger to recite to them Our verses}.

The essence of the answer is that Allah the Exalted established that the absence of a Messenger serves as an excuse for the people, so it was necessary that their destruction not be permissible until after the mission.

The commentators mentioned two interpretations for this:

1. {And your Lord would not destroy the towns until He had sent to their mother-town a Messenger}: Meaning, to the principal town (umm-hā), the origin, and the capital (qaṣbatu-hā) which encompasses its works and dependencies, a Messenger to establish the proof and cut off all excuses.
2. And your Lord would not destroy the towns of the earth until He had sent to the Mother of Towns (Umm al-Qurā), meaning Makkah, a Messenger, who is Muhammad (peace be upon him), the Seal of the Prophets. The meaning of {to recite to them Our verses} is to deliver and convey.

He answered the second question with: {And We would not destroy the towns unless their people were wrongdoers}—wronging themselves with polytheism. The people of Makkah were not entirely like that, as some of them had believed, and Allah knew that some others would believe from their lineage, or that others, even if they did not believe, would have believers emerge from their offspring.