وَلَقَد صَبَّحَهُم بُكرَةً عَذابٌ مُستَقِرٌّ

Certainly early at dawn there visited them an abiding punishment.

EXEGESIS

Bukratan (early at dawn) means the earliest part of the day, whilst ṣabbaḥahum, refers to ṣubḥ, which is the whole morning.[1] Thus, bukratan is an adverb of time explaining which time in the morning. Based on this, it is not entirely clear whether the punishment was sent upon them at daybreak (fajr) or after sunrise, since both can be called the beginning of the day (bukrah). Some exegetes suggest this word is more apparent in sunrise.[2]

Mustaqirr (abiding) implies permanence and firmness. Thus, it means that their destruction was an instance of a non-changing or permanent rule. It can also mean that the punishment was so severe and strong that no force could challenge it.[3] Most exegetes suggest that this is to indicate that their worldly punishment was continued with the punishment in the intermediary realm (barzakh) after death.[4] Others have suggested that it means the punishment did not leave out anyone and encompassed all the wrongdoers.[5]

EXPOSITION

This verse indicates that the blinding of the people in the previous verse was not the real and permanent punishment. Rather, when they woke up in the morning, they were faced with such a severe punishment that it is described as abiding. Some have linked this verse with verse 3, which uses the same word to say, and every matter has a setting (mustaqirr). This indicates that the punishment that befell them was in line with the permanent non-changing laws of this world. The details of this punishment have been given in 11:82-83 which was not against the physical laws nor accidental to it:[6] So when Our edict came, We made its topmost part its nethermost, and We rained on it stones of laminar shale, marked with your Lord [for the profligate], never far from the wrongdoers.

[1] Ibn Ashur, 27/197.
[2] Amthal, 17/337; Alusi, 14/90.
[3] Amthal, 17/337; Razi, 29/318.
[4] Amthal, 17/337; See also Safi, 5/103; Suyuti, 6/136.
[5] Munyah, 27/216.
[6] Mudarrisi, 14/252.