Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:10
And already were messengers ridiculed before you, but those who mocked them were enveloped by that which they used to ridicule.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: "And messengers before you were indeed mocked, but those among them who scoffed were encompassed by that which they used to mock" (6:10).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, consoling him with His threat against those who mocked him, as a punishment for the harm that befell him from them in the form of mockery toward him and disdain for the sake of Allah: Make it light upon yourself, O Muḥammad, what befalls you from these mockers who mock you and who disdain my right over you and over obedience to me. Continue with that which I have commanded you: the call to my oneness, the acknowledgment of me, and submission to obedience to me. For if they persist in their error and continue in their abiding in unbelief (kufr), then we shall deal with them as we did with their predecessors among all the other communities: hastening the punishment for them and sending down the exemplary chastisements upon them. For communities before you have already mocked messengers whom I had sent to them with the same thing with which I have sent you to your people, and they did the same as what your people did to you.
"But those who mocked them were encompassed by that which they used to mock" — He means by His word "fa-ḥāqa" (encompassed): thus there descended and surrounded those who mocked their messengers "that which they used to mock," that is to say: the punishment with which they mocked and which they denied would befall them, just as their messengers had warned them.
One says of this: "ḥāqa bihim hādhā al-amr — yaḥīqu bihim — ḥayqan, ḥuyūqan, and ḥayaqānan" (this matter encompassed them).
And in agreement with what we have said concerning this, a group of the exegetes has spoken.
Mention of who said that:
13094 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "But those among them who scoffed were encompassed" — among the messengers — "by that which they used to mock," that is to say: there came upon them the punishment with which they mocked.
