Al-A'raf: (164-165) And when a group among them said...

Know that His saying: {And when a group said} is connected to His saying: {When they were transgressing} and shares the same grammatical ruling.

And His saying: {a group among them} means a gathering of the people of the town, from their righteous ones who exerted themselves greatly in admonishing those fishermen, to the point where they despaired of the others accepting their counsel. Other groups continued their admonition.

And His saying: {Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy}—meaning annihilate them and purify the earth of them—{or punish them with a severe punishment} for their persistence in evil. They said this because they knew that admonition would not benefit them.

And His saying: {They said, "As an excuse to your Lord"}—there are two points of discussion regarding this:

Based on this, the meaning of His saying: {As an excuse to your Lord} is: "It is our standing by our defense before Allah, the Exalted. For if we persist in enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong for a long time, we say: We have done our duty, and thus we will be excused."

Al-Azhari said: Al-ma'dhirah is a noun on the pattern of maf'alah derived from 'adhara ya'dhuru, and it stands in place of the act of apologizing (i'tidhar). It is as if they said: "Our admonition is an excuse/apology to our Lord." Thus, the noun stands in place of the verbal action of apologizing. It is said: I'tadhara fulan i'tidharan wa 'udhran wa ma'dhiratan min dhanbihi fa 'adhartuhu (So-and-so apologized for his sin with i'tidhar, 'udhr, and ma'dhirah, so I excused him).

And His saying: {and perhaps they will fear (Allah)} means: It is also possible, in our view, that they might benefit from this admonition, fear Allah, and abandon this sin.

Once you know this, we say: There are two opinions regarding this verse:

The First Opinion: That among the people of the town, there was a group that fished and committed that sin, and a group that did not commit the sin. This second group was divided into two: some admonished the sinful group and forbade them from that action, and others remained silent about the admonition and criticized those who admonished, saying to them: {Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or punish them severely?}—meaning they had reached such persistence in this sin that they could hardly be stopped from it, so this admonition became useless and without effect, thus necessitating its abandonment.

The Second Opinion: That the people of the town were two factions: one faction committed the sin, and another faction refrained from it and admonished the former. When this admonishing faction engaged in admonishing the sinful, transgressing faction that persisted in the ugly act, the sinful faction said to the admonishing faction: {Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or punish them severely}—according to your claim?

Al-Wahidi said: The first opinion is more correct. Because if they were two factions, and the saying {As an excuse to your Lord} was an address from the forbidding faction to the transgressing faction, they would have said: {and perhaps you will fear (Allah)}.

As for His saying: {So when they forgot what they had been reminded of}—meaning when they abandoned what the righteous reminded them of, like one forgets what is forgotten—{We saved those who forbade evil, and We seized those who wronged}—those who persisted in committing the sin.

Know that the wording of the verse indicates that the transgressing faction was destroyed, and the faction forbidding evil was saved. As for those who said: {Why do you admonish?}, the exegetes differed on which of the two groups they belonged to.

It is narrated from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) that he refrained from deciding. It is also narrated from him that both factions perished, and only the admonishing faction was saved. Ibn 'Abbas, when reciting this verse, would weep and say: "Indeed, these who remained silent about forbidding evil perished, and we see things we disapprove of, then we remain silent and say nothing."

Al-Hasan said: The silent faction was saved. According to this view, two factions were saved, and the third perished. They supported this by saying that when they said: {Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or punish them severely?}, this indicated that they strongly disapproved of the admonishers, and they only abandoned admonishing because they strongly suspected that the sinners would not heed that admonition or benefit from it.

If it is argued: That abandoning admonition is a sin, and forbidding the admonishers is also a sin, then those who abandoned admonishing and forbade the admonishers must fall under the category of {and We seized those who wronged}.

We reply: This is not necessary, because enjoining good and forbidding evil is a communal obligation ('ala al-Kifayah). If some perform it, the obligation falls away from the rest.

Then He mentioned that Allah seized them with a painful punishment. The apparent meaning is that this punishment is different from the transformation (into apes) mentioned later.

And His saying: {with a severe punishment} (bi-'adhabin ba'eesin)—meaning intense. There are several recitations for this word:

1. {بئيس} (ba'ees) on the pattern of fa'eel. Abu 'Ali said there are two interpretations: First, that it is derived from ba'usa yab'usu ba'san (to be severe), meaning intense. Second, what Abu Zayd said: that it is from al-bu's (poverty). It is said ba'usa yab'asu bu'san wa ba'san wa ba'eesan if he became poor, so he is ba'is (poor). Thus, {with a severe punishment} means a punishment possessing poverty/misery.
2. The second recitation is {بئس} (bi's) on the pattern of haḍir.
3. The third is {بيس} (bayyis) by transposing the hamza to a ya', like dheeb for dhi'b.
4. The fourth is {بيئس} (bay'is) on the pattern of fi'il.
5. The fifth is {بيس} (bayyis) on the pattern of rayyis, by transposing the hamza of ba'ees to a ya' and merging the ya' into it.
6. The sixth is {بيس} (bayyis) by lightening bayyis like hayyin for hayyin.

These recitations were mentioned by the author of Al-Kashshaf. Then the Exalted clarified that despite this punishment descending upon them, they became rebellious.

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