Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:94-95

**{Except that We seized its people with al-ba’sā’}**: With misery and poverty. **{And al-ḍarrā’}**: With harm and illness.

This is because of their arrogance in refusing to follow their prophet and their haughtiness toward him.

{So that they might humble themselves}: That they might supplicate, show humility, and cast off the garments of pride and might.

{Then We replaced the evil with the good}: Meaning, We gave them, in place of the affliction, trial, hardship, and illness they were in, ease, health, and abundance. It is like His saying: {And We tested them with good and evil} (Al-Aʿrāf: 168).

{Until they increased}: They grew and multiplied in themselves and their wealth. This is derived from the saying: "The plant ‘afā (grew/multiplied)" and "The fat and fur ‘afā," when they become abundant. From this is the saying of the Prophet (ﷺ): "And let your beards grow (wa-a‘fū)." Al-Ḥuṭay’ah also said: "With a lion-like place, its vegetation abundant (‘āfin)." And he said: "But we bite the sword with it, with shanks abundant (‘āfiyāt) in fat, humped."

{And they said, "Our fathers were touched by both hardship and ease"}: Meaning, the blessing made them insolent and boastful, so they said: "This is the habit of time; it alternates between people, between hardship and ease. Our fathers were touched by the like of this, and it is not a trial from Allah for His servants."

Thus, after they were tested with both evil and good, nothing remained but that We should seize them with punishment.

{So We seized them}: The most severe and horrific seizure, which is seizing them suddenly without them perceiving it.

{And if only the people of the cities had believed and feared Allah, We would have opened upon them blessings from the heaven and the earth; but they denied, so We seized them for what they were earning.}