Say ‘He has the power to send forth upon you a chastisement from above you from the heaven such as stones cf. Q. 832 or a Cry cf. Q. 1167 or from beneath your feet such as the causing of the earth to cave in cf. Q. 2940 or to confound you to confuse you in parties sects with differing whims and to make you taste the violence of one another’ through fighting. When this verse was revealed the Prophet s said ‘This chastisement etc. is easier and lighter’; but when the last statement was revealed he said ‘I seek refuge with Your Countenance!’ as reported by al-Bukhārī. Muslim reports the following hadīth ‘I requested from my Lord not to make my community violent towards each other but He denied me this request’. In another hadīth when it was revealed he is reported to have said ‘As for this it will surely come to pass even though its proper meaning has not yet come’. See how We dispense how We clarify for them the signs the proofs of Our power that perhaps they might understand that they might realise that what they follow is falsehood.
