Wakam min qaryatin ahlaknaha fajaaha basuna bayatan aw hum qailoona
English
Ahmed Ali
Many a habitation have We laid low before: Our retribution came upon them in the night or in the midst of siesta at noon.
4
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (how many a township) people of townships (have we destroyed) we tormented! (as a raid by night) or day, (or while they slept at noon, our terror) our punishment (came unto them).
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : how many (kam is predicative and is the direct object [of the main verb, ahlaknāhā, ‘we have destroyed’]) a city, meaning its inhabitants, have we destroyed, have we willed its destruction! so our might, our chastisement, came upon it at night or while they slept at noon (qā’ilūn: al-qaylūla is a rest taken halfway during the day, even if it does not involve sleep), in other words, sometimes it came upon it at night, and sometimes it came during the day.
