Tafsir of Al-`Ankabut 29:40

Al-Ankabut (The Spider): (40) So each We seized for his sin...

Allah mentioned four types of punishment:

1. Punishment by stones (الحاصب): It is said this was with heated stones, which would strike one of them and penetrate through the other side. This indicates fire and torment.
2. Punishment by the mighty blast/sound (الصيحة): This is turbulent air. Sound is caused by the vibration of air reaching the membrane covering the ear canal (the simaakh), striking it, and thus being perceived.
3. Punishment by sinking/collapse (الخسف): This is being submerged in the earth/dust.
4. Punishment by drowning (الإغراق): This is by water.

Thus, the torment encompassed the four elements from which man is composed, upon which his existence depends, and by which his sustenance and permanence are maintained. When Allah wills the destruction of man, He makes that which is the cause of his existence (the elements) the cause of his non-existence, and that which sustains his life the cause of his annihilation.

Then, the Almighty said: {And Allah would not have wronged them, but they were wronging themselves.}

This means Allah did not wrong them by inflicting destruction; rather, they wronged themselves by committing shirk (associating partners with Allah).

There is a more subtle interpretation: Allah would not wrong them, meaning He would not place them in a position other than their rightful place. Their rightful place is honor, as stated in the verse: {And We have certainly honored the children of Adam} (Al-Isra: 70). However, they wronged themselves by placing themselves—despite their nobility—in the degradation of worshipping idols alongside their baseness.

{ The likeness of those who take protectors other than Allah is as the likeness of a spider who takes a house, and indeed, the frailest of houses is the house of a spider, if only they knew. } (41)

(The translation continues with the next verse, which is verse 41, as indicated by the structure of the excerpt.)