Then the evildoers substituted a saying other than that which had been said to them, that is, they demanded to be described by the attributes of the soul desiring its share instead of demanding to be described by the attributes of God and desiring spiritual shares, as is reported of them [that they would say]: ḥinṭan samqāthā, which means, 'we seek the nourishment of the soul'; so We sent down upon the evildoers, specifically, wrath [from the heaven for their wickedness], chastisement, straits, constraint and darkness by the imprisonment of the soul and in captivity with the shackles of desire, and through veiling within the bonds of caprice, and in privation and degradement through love of lower matter and its transformation and evanescence by the overwhelming power of the spirit heaven, and [by] the withholding of gentleness and rest from them on account of their wickedness, that is, their seceding from obedience of the heart to obedience of the soul. We have left out the second interpretation because it is very close to this one.
