Tafsir of Al-Qasas 28:58

"And how many a town have We destroyed that was insolent in its [way of] living..."

This is a warning to the people of Mecca regarding the evil consequences that befell a people who were in a state similar to theirs—blessed by God with the comfort of security and an easy life. They treated the blessing with ingratitude, responding to it with insolence and arrogance, so God destroyed them and laid their dwellings in ruins.

The word ma‘īshatahā (its living) is in the accusative case (naṣb). This is either:

1. By omitting the preposition and connecting the verb directly to it, as in His saying: "And Moses chose his people" (wa-khtāra Mūsā qawmahu).
2. By functioning as an adverb of time (ẓarf) itself, like saying: "Zayd is my expectation [to be] staying."
3. By estimating the omission of an added temporal noun; its origin is: "They were insolent during the days of their living," similar to "the setting of the star" or "the arrival of the pilgrims."
4. By implying in the verb baṭarat (they were insolent) the meaning of "they disbelieved" and "they treated with ingratitude."

It is said: Baṭar (insolence) is the inability to handle wealth properly, which is failing to observe God’s right regarding it.

"...so those are their dwellings [which have not been inhabited] after them except a little."

Ibn Abbas (may God be pleased with them both) said: "No one inhabited them except the traveler and the passerby, for a day or an hour." It is also possible that the ill-omen of the sins of those destroyed left its mark on their dwellings, such that whoever inhabited them from their successors did not remain there except for a little while.

"...and it is We who were the inheritors."

We inherited those dwellings from their inhabitants. This means: We left them in a state where no one dwells in them, or We ruined them and leveled them to the ground.

The traces outlive their owners for a time, Then annihilation overtakes them, and they follow.

"And never would your Lord have destroyed the cities until He had sent to their mother [i.e., principal city] a messenger reciting to them Our verses. And We would not destroy the cities except while their people were wrongdoers."