Tafsir of Al-Burooj 85:4

If you ask: Where is the response to the oath? I say: It is omitted, indicated by His saying: "Cursed be the People of the Trench." It is as if it were said: "I swear by these things that they [the disbelievers of Quraysh] are cursed, just as the People of the Trench were cursed."

The Surah was revealed to strengthen the believers, to encourage them to endure the harm of the people of Mecca, and to remind them of what befell those before them—the torture for their faith and the various types of harm they endured—so that they might find comfort in them, persevere against what they faced from their own people, and know that their disbelievers are, in the sight of God, in the same position as those who were tortured and burned by fire. They are cursed and deserving of the statement: "May the Quraysh be cursed," just as it was said: "Cursed be the People of the Trench."

Qutila (Cursed/Destroyed) is an imprecation against them, like His saying: "Cursed is man; how disbelieving is he!" (Abasa: 17). It is also read as quttila (with a shadda).

Al-Ukhdud (the trench) is a furrow in the earth, meaning a cleft. Al-Khaqq and al-ukhquq are similar in construction and meaning.

The Story of the Trench: It is narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ) that a king had a sorcerer. When the sorcerer grew old, he asked for a boy to be sent to him to learn magic. On the boy's way, there was a monk. The boy began sitting with the monk. One day, he found a beast blocking the people's path. He took a stone and said, "O God, if the monk is more beloved to You than the sorcerer, then kill this beast." He killed it. Thereafter, the boy began healing the blind and the leper. A courtier of the king who had gone blind was healed by him. When the king asked who restored his sight, he said, "My Lord." The king tortured him until he revealed the boy. The boy was tortured until he revealed the monk. The monk refused to recant and was sawn in half. The boy was taken to a mountain to be thrown off, but he prayed, and the mountain shook, causing his executioners to fall while he was saved. He was taken to sea to be drowned, but he prayed, and the ship capsized, drowning them while he was saved.

He told the king: "You will not be able to kill me until you gather the people, crucify me on a trunk, take an arrow from my quiver, and say: 'In the name of God, the Lord of the boy,' then shoot me." The king did so, and the boy died. The people cried out: "We believe in the Lord of the boy!" The king was told: "The very thing you feared has befallen you." He ordered trenches to be dug at the entrances of the streets and fires to be lit. Whoever did not recant was thrown in. A woman with a child hesitated, but the child said: "O mother, be patient, for you are on the truth," so she threw herself in.

Other Narrations:

• Ali (RA): They were a people who practiced incest. When a king committed this sin, he sought a way to legalize it. He tried to force the people to accept it through preaching, then the whip, then the sword. When they refused, he ordered the trenches and the fire.
• Najran: A man of the religion of Jesus (AS) came to Najran and converted the people. Dhu Nuwas, the Jewish king, came with an army and gave them the choice between Judaism or the fire. They refused, and he burned twelve thousand (or seventy thousand) of them. The trench was forty cubits long and twelve cubits wide.

Exegesis:

• "The Fire" (al-nar): An appositional substitute (badal ishtimal) for "the Trench."
• "Full of fuel" (dhat al-wuqud): Described as a great fire possessing much fuel—wood and human bodies—to raise its flames.
• "While they were sitting by it" (idh hum 'alayha qu'ud): Idh (when) is the temporal adverb for "cursed." They were cursed when they sat around the fire. 'Alayha (by it/upon it) refers to the edges of the trench, as one says, "He sat by the fire."
• "And they were witnesses to what they were doing to the believers": They were appointed to this task, witnessing for one another before the king that no one had been negligent in the torture entrusted to them. Or, they are witnesses to their own deeds, which will be testified against them on the Day of Resurrection.
• "And they resented them not except because they believed in God": They found no fault in them except their faith.
• "The Almighty, the Praiseworthy": He is the Almighty (al-'Aziz), the Overpowering, the Capable, whose punishment is feared; and the Praiseworthy (al-Hamid), the Bestower of blessings, to whom praise is due and whose reward is hoped for.
• "To whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth": Everyone within them must worship Him. The resentment of the disbelievers is the truth, which only a misguided person would resent.
• "And God is Witness over all things": A threat to them, meaning He knows what they have done and will recompense them for it.