Tafsir of Ash-Shu`ara' 26:3

"Perhaps you would kill yourself" (laʿallaka bākhiʿun nafsaka):

• Al-bakhʿ: It means to reach the point of al-bakhāʿ (with a bāʾ), which is a vein located beneath the vertebrae. This is the extreme limit of slaughter.
• Laʿalla (Perhaps): Used here to express compassion. It means: Have compassion for yourself, lest you kill it out of grief for what you have missed regarding the Islam of your people.
• "That they will not be believers" (allā yakūnū muʾminīn): This means: lest they believe, or because of the impossibility of their belief, or out of fear that they might not believe.
• Qatadah (may Allah be pleased with him): He read it as bākhiʿu nafsika (in the genitive construct/idafa).

"If We willed, We could send down to them from the sky a sign, so their necks would remain bowed before it."