فَإِنۡ أَعۡرَضُواْ فَقُلۡ أَنذَرۡتُكُمۡ صَٰعِقَةࣰ مِّثۡلَ صَٰعِقَةِ عَادࣲ وَثَمُودَ
But if they turn away, say, ‘I warn you of a thunderbolt, like the thunderbolt of ‘Ad and Thamud.’
إِذۡ جَآءَتۡهُمُ ٱلرُّسُلُ مِنۢ بَيۡنِ أَيۡدِيهِمۡ وَمِنۡ خَلۡفِهِمۡ أَلَّا تَعۡبُدُوٓاْ إِلَّا ٱللَّهَۖ قَالُواْ لَوۡ شَآءَ رَبُّنَا لَأَنزَلَ مَلَٰٓئِكَةࣰ فَإِنَّا بِمَآ أُرۡسِلۡتُم بِهِۦ كَٰفِرُونَ
When the apostles came to them, before them and in their own time, saying, ‘Worship no one except Allah!’ They said, ‘Had our Lord wished, He would have sent down angels [to us]. We indeed disbelieve in what you have been sent with.’
فَأَمَّا عَادࣱ فَٱسۡتَكۡبَرُواْ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ بِغَيۡرِ ٱلۡحَقِّ وَقَالُواْ مَنۡ أَشَدُّ مِنَّا قُوَّةًۖ أَوَلَمۡ يَرَوۡاْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِي خَلَقَهُمۡ هُوَ أَشَدُّ مِنۡهُمۡ قُوَّةࣰۖ وَكَانُواْ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا يَجۡحَدُونَ
As for [the people of] ‘Ad, they acted arrogantly in the earth unduly, and they said, ‘Who is more powerful than us?’ Did they not see that Allah, who created them, is more powerful than them? They used to impugn Our signs
فَأَرۡسَلۡنَا عَلَيۡهِمۡ رِيحࣰ ا صَرۡصَرࣰ ا فِيٓ أَيَّامࣲ نَّحِسَاتࣲ لِّنُذِيقَهُمۡ عَذَابَ ٱلۡخِزۡيِ فِي ٱلۡحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنۡيَاۖ وَلَعَذَابُ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةِ أَخۡزَىٰۖ وَهُمۡ لَا يُنصَرُونَ
so We unleashed upon them an icy gale during ill-fated days, in order that We might make them taste a humiliating punishment in the life of the world. Yet the punishment of the Hereafter will be surely more disgraceful, and they will not be helped
وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيۡنَٰهُمۡ فَٱسۡتَحَبُّواْ ٱلۡعَمَىٰ عَلَى ٱلۡهُدَىٰ فَأَخَذَتۡهُمۡ صَٰعِقَةُ ٱلۡعَذَابِ ٱلۡهُونِ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَكۡسِبُونَ
As for [the people of] Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness to guidance. So the bolt of a humiliating punishment seized them because of what they used to earn
وَنَجَّيۡنَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَكَانُواْ يَتَّقُونَ
And We delivered those who had faith and were Godwary
وَيَوۡمَ يُحۡشَرُ أَعۡدَآءُ ٱللَّهِ إِلَى ٱلنَّارِ فَهُمۡ يُوزَعُونَ
The day the enemies of Allah are marched out toward the Fire, while they are in check
حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا مَا جَآءُوهَا شَهِدَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ سَمۡعُهُمۡ وَأَبۡصَٰرُهُمۡ وَجُلُودُهُم بِمَا كَانُواْ يَعۡمَلُونَ
when they come to it, their hearing, their eyes and their skins will bear witness against them concerning what they used to do
وَقَالُواْ لِجُلُودِهِمۡ لِمَ شَهِدتُّمۡ عَلَيۡنَاۖ قَالُوٓاْ أَنطَقَنَا ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِيٓ أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَيۡءࣲۚ وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمۡ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةࣲ وَإِلَيۡهِ تُرۡجَعُونَ
They will say to their skins, ‘Why did you bear witness against us?’ They will say, ‘We were given speech by Allah, who gave speech to all things. He created you the first time, and you are being brought back to Him
وَمَا كُنتُمۡ تَسۡتَتِرُونَ أَن يَشۡهَدَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ سَمۡعُكُمۡ وَلَآ أَبۡصَٰرُكُمۡ وَلَا جُلُودُكُمۡ وَلَٰكِن ظَنَنتُمۡ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَعۡلَمُ كَثِيرࣰ ا مِّمَّا تَعۡمَلُونَ
You did not use to conceal yourselves [while perpetrating sinful acts] lest your hearing, your eyes, or your skins should bear witness against you, but you thought that Allah did not know most of what you did
وَذَٰلِكُمۡ ظَنُّكُمُ ٱلَّذِي ظَنَنتُم بِرَبِّكُمۡ أَرۡدَىٰكُمۡ فَأَصۡبَحۡتُم مِّنَ ٱلۡخَٰسِرِينَ
That misjudgement, which you entertained about your Lord ruined you. So you became losers.’
فَإِن يَصۡبِرُواْ فَٱلنَّارُ مَثۡوࣰ ى لَّهُمۡۖ وَإِن يَسۡتَعۡتِبُواْ فَمَا هُم مِّنَ ٱلۡمُعۡتَبِينَ
Should they be patient, the Fire is their abode; and should they seek to propitiate [Allah], they will not be redeemed
۞وَقَيَّضۡنَا لَهُمۡ قُرَنَآءَ فَزَيَّنُواْ لَهُم مَّا بَيۡنَ أَيۡدِيهِمۡ وَمَا خَلۡفَهُمۡ وَحَقَّ عَلَيۡهِمُ ٱلۡقَوۡلُ فِيٓ أُمَمࣲ قَدۡ خَلَتۡ مِن قَبۡلِهِم مِّنَ ٱلۡجِنِّ وَٱلۡإِنسِۖ إِنَّهُمۡ كَانُواْ خَٰسِرِينَ
We have assigned them companions who make their present [conduct] and future [state] seem decorous to them, and the word became due against them along with the nations of jinn and humans that passed away before them. They were indeed losers
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulating Majmaʿ al-Bayān (Ṭabarsī), al-Tibyān (Ṭūsī), al-Burhān (Baḥrānī), Tafsīr al-Qummī, al-Mīzān (Ṭabāṭabāʾī), and the Enlightening Commentary.
Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] — its single long bayān unit (vv. 13–25, ~17.8k chars) was faithfully condensed.
What the passage says. If they turn away, the Prophet is to warn them of "a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt of ʿĀd and Thamūd," to whom messengers came "from before them and behind them" with the call to worship God alone, and who answered that God would have sent angels, not a man (13–14). ʿĀd were arrogant — "who is mightier than us in strength?" — and were struck by a roaring wind in "ill-omened days"; Thamūd were guided but "preferred blindness over guidance" and were seized by the bolt of an abasing punishment, while the believers were saved (15–18). Then the scene shifts to the Resurrection: God's enemies herded to the Fire, where their own hearing, sight and skins testify against them; they reproach their skins, which answer, "God, who made everything speak, made us speak"; they had supposed God did not know much of what they did, and that very opinion ruined them; companions had been assigned who made their misdeeds seem fair (19–25).
How the present sources read it. On the cosmology of punishment, the classical voices align closely: Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] gloss "ṣarṣar" as a roaring (or cold, or burning) wind and "naḥisāt" as ill-omened days (Ṭūsī adding al-Suddī's "cold with a sound" and Mujāhid's "scorching"), and both relay the variant readings ("naḥisāt"/"naḥshur"). On Thamūd's hidāya (17), a sharp doctrinal point surfaces: Ṭūsī reads "We guided them… they preferred blindness" as a refutation of the Mujbira — God truly guided them, and the choice of blindness was theirs — and al-Qummī [qummi] makes the same anti-determinist point ("He did not say 'God preferred [it] for them'"). Al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] anchors this in narrations: al-Ṣādiq and al-Hādī gloss hidāya as taʿrīf (making-known), citing 9:115, 91:8 and 76:3.
The Shīʿī sources add a distinct taʾwīl layer, reported strictly as-attributed. Al-Burhān relays al-Ṣādiq reading "the punishment of disgrace in this world" (16) as the maskh (transformation) of a man "before the rising of the Qāʾim"; reading "Thamūd" (in 91:11) as "a band of the Shīʿa" met by "the sword when the Qāʾim rises"; and reading "We shall make the disbelievers taste a severe punishment" (in the verses just beyond this passage) as punishment "for abandoning the walāya of ʿAlī," with "the signs" being "the Imams." Most strikingly, on the limbs' testimony (20–21), both al-Burhān and al-Qummī carry al-Ṣādiq's narration that those who "swear to God they did nothing" — sealed and exposed by their own limbs — "are those who usurped Amīr al-Muʾminīn." The synthesis records these as the sources' own attributions.
On the limbs' testimony itself, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] supplies the deepest analysis: it is a real testimony of discharge of what the limbs bore in the world, and he expressly rejects the three reductive views relayed (without decision) by Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī — that God merely creates knowledge and speech in the limbs at that moment, or creates speech-like sounds, or that "testimony" is only circumstantial evidence — since none would establish a genuine proof. He grounds this in his recurring thesis that knowledge pervades all existents (17:44; 41:11; 99:4–5) and that knowledge is concomitant with immaterial existence — connecting the verse back to "Come, willingly or unwillingly… we come obediently" of the previous passage. On "you did not suppose God did not know" (22–23), al-Mīzān, Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī converge: the sinners belittled not their limbs' awareness but God's witnessing, and "that opinion ruined you." Here all the narration-sources gather a luminous counter-theme of ḥusn al-ẓann (thinking well of God): al-Burhān (×3, via al-Ṭabarsī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥajjāj, and Ibn ʿUyayna), al-Qummī, and al-Mīzān's baḥth riwāʾī (al-Faqīh, al-Durr al-Manthūr ← Jābir) all carry the ḥadīth "God is at His servant's opinion of Him" and the story of the last servant saved from the Fire by his hope. On "the skins" (20–22), al-Qummī, al-Burhān (← al-Zubayrī) and al-Mīzān's traditions (al-Faqīh ← ʿAlī; al-Qummī) gloss them as the genitals, while Ṭūsī notes both that euphemism and "the apparent sense, the known skins." On the assigned "companions" (25), Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān agree the evil quranāʾ are a recompense for disbelief (cf. 43:36), al-Mīzān reading taqyīḍ as substitution for the godly companions the believers are aided with (58:22). The Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary] narrates the ʿĀd–Thamūd histories and the Resurrection scene in parallel published English.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.