Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:4

{فجاءها} (Then it came to it): It means it came to its people.

{بياتا} (by night): An infinitive used in the position of a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl), meaning "while they were spending the night." It is said: "He spent the night (bāta) a good night-spending (bayātan)," or "a good night-stay (baytatan)."

His saying {هم قائلون} (they were taking a midday nap): This is a circumstantial qualifier conjoined to bayātan. It is as if it were said: "Our punishment came to them while they were spending the night or taking a midday nap."

If you ask: Is the omitted possessor (muḍāf)—meaning the "people"—to be assumed before "village" or before the pronoun in "We destroyed it"? I say: The possessor is only assumed when there is a need, and there is no need here, for a village is destroyed just as its people are destroyed. We only assumed it before the pronoun in "it came to it" because of his saying "or they were taking a midday nap."

If you ask: It is not said, "Zayd came to me, he is a horseman," without a wāw (conjunction), so what about his saying "they were taking a midday nap"? I say: Some grammarians assumed the wāw was omitted, but al-Zajjāj rejected this. He said: If you say, "Zayd came to me walking, or he is a horseman," or "Zayd came to me, he is a horseman," it does not require a wāw because the mention refers back to the first. The correct view is that when it is conjoined to a preceding circumstantial qualifier, the wāw is omitted due to the heaviness of having two conjunctions together, for the wāw of the circumstantial qualifier is a wāw of conjunction borrowed for connection. Thus, your saying "Zayd came to me walking or he is a horseman" is eloquent speech according to its rule, whereas "Zayd came to me, he is a horseman" is corrupt.

If you ask: What is the meaning of his saying {أهلكناها فجاءها بأسنا} (We destroyed it, then Our punishment came to it), when destruction only occurs after the punishment comes? I say: Its meaning is "We intended to destroy it," like His saying: "O you who believe, when [you rise to prayer]..." (Al-Ma'idah: 6).

These two times—the time of spending the night and the time of the midday nap—were specified because they are times of heedlessness and ease, so the descent of punishment during them is more severe and horrific. The people of Lot were destroyed at night during the dawn, and the people of Shu'ayb were destroyed at the time of the midday nap.

{فما كان دعواهم إذ جآءهم بأسنآ إلا أن قالوا إنا كنا ظالمين} (Then their cry, when Our punishment came to them, was nothing but that they said: "Indeed, we were wrongdoers.")