وَلَقَد كَذَّبَ الَّذينَ مِن قَبلِهِم فَكَيفَ كانَ نَكيرِ
Certainly those who were before them had denied; but then how was My rebuttal!
EXEGESIS
Nakīr is from the root nakira, which means not to know. Hence, nakīr means to deny something (as one is making it unknown by rejecting it). The word is actually nakīrī, meaning ‘my nakīr’. This expression refers to God’s alteration of something, which in this context is by means of punishing a people, or depriving them of His bounties. Or it may refer to God’s denial of their beliefs and actions, which would again reduce to His punishment.
Unlike the previous verses, this verse does not directly address the audience anymore, suggesting their lack of worth for being addressed and spoken to by God.
EXPOSITION
This verse takes the threat posed in the last two verses one step forward: not only is God’s punishment possible, but it has actually happened to previous nations, who were human beings just like you. Indeed, the two punishments mentioned in the last two verses are only two examples of what befell the transgressors of yore: So We seized each [of them] for his sin: among them were those upon whom We unleashed a rain of stones, and among them were those who were seized by the cry, and among them were those whom We caused the earth to swallow, and among them were those whom We drowned. It was not Allah who wronged them, but it was they who used to wrong themselves (29:40). And God’s custom is the same for everyone because He is free from every discrimination and favouritism: evil schemes beset only their authors – so do they await anything except the precedent of the ancients? Yet you will never find any change in Allah’s precedent, and you will never find any revision in Allah’s precedent (35:43). These verses also serve as a consolidation to the Prophet against the disbelief and plots of the infidels.
[1] Tahqiq, under n-k-r.
[2] Razi, 30/593; Mizan, 19/358.
[3] Mizan, 19/358.
[4] Mizan, 19/358-359.
[5] Alusi, 15/19.