Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 158 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:158

فَأَخَذَهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ ۗ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةً ۖ وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

“And the punishment seized them. Indeed in that is a sign, but most of them were not to be believers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The punishment Salih named arrives as named, and the refrain of 26:8 closes a story whose sign was requested, granted, and fed them.

A reflection

The punishment, with 'the'

The second half of this ayah is the refrain first met at 26:8, and its full treatment lives there. The first half is new, and it is worth reading slowly.

Two ayat earlier Salih warned: lest the punishment of a great day seize you, fa-yaʾkhudhakum (26:156). Now the same verb returns in the past tense: fa-akhadhahumu l-ʿadhāb, so the punishment seized them. And this time the word has the definite article. Not 'a punishment', but the punishment.

Several classical commentators point out what that article does. It refers back. It means the punishment already promised, the one named in the warning. Nothing new or arbitrary fell on Thamud. What came was exactly what they had been told would come, in almost the same words.

The Quran is careful like this. A warning is spoken, a choice is made, and then the warning's own words return as the outcome.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.