Verse. 3622

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (but they were froward) they turned away from faith and acceptance of the messengers and failed to give thanks, (so we sent on them the flood of 'iram) the flood of a river which destroyed their gardens, houses and all their bounties. 'iram was the name of a river in yemen within which they built a dam. this dam had three superimposed openings, allah destroyed the dam and destroyed them by means of its water, (and in exchange for their two gardens) which were destroyed (gave them two gardens bearing bitter fruit, the tamarisk and here and there a lote tree.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : but they were disregardful, of giving thanks to him and became disbelievers, so we unleashed upon them the flood of the dam (al-‘arim is the plural of ‘arima, which is a structure or something similar that holds water back [to be stored] for when it is needed), in other words, [we unleashed upon them] the flood-waters of their valley which had been held back by the mentioned [structure] so that they engulfed their two gardens together with all their property. and we gave them in place of their two gardens two gardens bearing (dhawātay, a dual form of [feminine plural] dhawāt; usually [the form dhātay from] the singular [would have been used]) bitter fruit, bitter and vile (ukul may be read as a genitive annexation [ukulin khamtin] in the sense of ‘that which is eaten [thereof being bitter]; or it may be read without [as ukuli khamtin]; and this [phrase] is supplemented [by the following, wa-athlin wa-shay’in min sidrin qalīl) and tamarisk and sparse lote trees.