وَلَقَد أَهلَكنا أَشياعَكُم فَهَل مِن مُدَّكِرٍ

Certainly We have destroyed your likes. So is there anyone who will be admonished?

EXEGESIS

Ashyāʿ (likes) is the plural of shīʿah, which means follower. Thus, ashyāʿakum means those who were like you in following, those who followed what you follow and denied as you deny.[1]

The previous verses referred to the polytheists in the third person whilst this verse switches to the second person and directly addresses the polytheists, as a means of increased censure and rebuke.[2]

EXPOSITION

This verse serves to point out to the polytheists that the warnings given to them about the doom and destruction are not merely empty threats. The proof is that the previous nations were similar to them and they were destroyed because of their denial.[3]

The phrase, So is there anyone who will be admonished? was repeated five other times previously in this chapter (verses 15, 17, 22, 32, and 40) but in four of those instances, it was preceded by Certainly We have made the Quran simple for the sake of admonishment. Some exegetes have understood from this that just as those verses were alluding to the Quran being made in such a way that man can take admonition from it, similarly this verse is alluding to the fact that history is also such that man can and ought to take admonition from it.[4]

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Some have suggested that the previous nations are described as the likes of the polytheists of Mecca because both are identical in their humanness and being from the progeny of Prophet Adam (a).[5]

[1] Munyah, 27/221; Mizan, 19/88; Tabrisi, 9/294.
[2] Munyah, 27/221.
[3] Mizan, 19/88.
[4] Mudarrisi, 14/267.
[5] Qushayri, 3/500.