Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:136
So We took retribution from them, and We drowned them in the sea because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: فَانْتَقَمْنَا مِنْهُمْ فَأَغْرَقْنَاهُمْ فِي الْيَمِّ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا وَكَانُوا عَنْهَا غَافِلِينَ (7:136) (So We took vengeance upon them and drowned them in the sea, because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: When they broke their covenants — "We took vengeance upon them" — that is to say: We obtained satisfaction from them by sending down Our punishment upon them, and that is His torment (ʿadhāb) — "and We drowned them in the sea (al-yamm)", and that is the sea, as Dhū al-Rumma said:
A savage wilderness and the darkness of a night, as though the two of them were a sea at whose edges the Byzantines babble in foreign tongues.
And as the rajaz-poet said:
* Like the high waves of the sea, which the sea itself gave to drink *
— "because they denied Our signs" — He says: We did this to them on account of their denying Our proofs and Our signs which We had shown them — "and were heedless of them" — He says: and they were heedless (ghāfilīn) of the punishment which We sent down upon them, before it struck them, in the sense that they did not realize that it would strike them.
* * *
And the "hāʾ and the alif" in His statement "ʿanhā" (of it) is a back-reference to the mention of "the punishment" (al-niqma). But if someone were to say that it is a back-reference to the mention of "the signs" (al-āyāt), and were to direct the explanation of the words toward: "and they were averse to them" — making their aversion to them a form of heedlessness on their part, because they did not accept them — then that too would be a defensible view. From "al-ghafla" (heedlessness) one says: "ghafala al-rajul ʿan kadhā yaghfulu ʿanhu ghaflatan wa-ghufūlan wa-ghafalan" (the man was heedless of something and remains heedless of it).