إِن كُلٌّ إِلّا كَذَّبَ الرُّسُلَ فَحَقَّ عِقابِ
Each of them did not but impugn the apostles; so My retribution became due [against them].
EXEGESIS
Ḥaqqa (became due) is a perfect tense verb from ḥaqq, meaning truth, or something that is justified and required by reason and wisdom. Whatever comes from God is of course ḥaqq, as the truth (ḥaqq) is from your Lord (2:147). As a verb, ḥaqqa means it was realised and became due; That is how the word of your Lord became due (ḥaqqat) concerning the faithless, that they shall be inmates of the fire (40:6).
EXPOSITION
The impugning of the factions towards their messengers is mentioned here a second time (after verse 12). In this second repetition we are told that they denied their apostles. The plural is used to denote that denying one messenger equates to denying them all (or that several messengers were sent to each of these communities). The repetition is there to emphasise that the severe punishment and retribution became necessary because of that impugning.
Each of them did not but impugn could be understood to mean that those nations had no outstanding quality and no truly distinctive attribute, apart from the fact that they denied their messengers; they were nothing but a group of deniers, who turned away from God’s reminder. When a nation does that it has destroyed any legacy of itself, except that it should remain as a warning for coming nations. This understanding fits in with the description in verse 12 of Pharaoh’s pyramids as simple stakes on the ground. It is all in fact a continuation of the chastisement that began in verse 9, underscoring that those who think they have power in this world are in fact owners of nothing at all.
Even though the aforementioned factions were from different times, places, and cultures, they all shared in two qualities: they denied the messengers sent to them by God, and they all suffered retribution as a result. The warning to the Meccan elite is clear: they should not think that they are safe from God’s punishment whilst their actions are the same actions and God’s treatment is the same treatment. This all ties in to the theme of warning, present throughout the surah.
It is interesting to note that this warning was not something new either, and that the example of previous nations was given to nations who came after them. When the believer from amongst the people of Pharaoh revealed and proclaimed his faith, he said: O my people! Indeed I fear for you [a day] like the day of the [heathen] factions (aḥzāb); like the case of the people of Noah, of ʿĀd and Thamūd, and those who were after them, and Allah does not desire any wrong for [His] servants (40:30-31).
Finally, we may note that the yā in ʿiqābī (My retribution) has been omitted, and replaced with a kasrah for the sake of the rhyme scheme, in typical Quranic style.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
[1] Raghib, p. 246.
[2] Zamakhshari, 4/76.
[3] Tantawi, 12/139.
[4] Mudarrisi, 11/327-328.
[5] Nemuneh, 19/231; Fadlallah, 19/240.
[6] 2 Chronicles 36:15-16.