وَجَعَلْنَا بَيْنَهُمْ وَبَيْنَ الْقُرَى الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا قُرًى ظَاهِرَةً وَقَدَّرْنَا فِيهَا السَّيْرَ سِيرُوا فِيهَا لَيَالِيَ وَأَيَّامًا آمِنِينَ ﴿۱۸﴾ فَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا بَاعِدْ بَيْنَ أَسْفَارِنَا وَظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ فَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَحَادِيثَ وَمَزَّقْنَاهُمْ كُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ ﴿۱۹﴾ وَلَقَدْ صَدَّقَ عَلَيْهِمْ إِبْلِيسُ ظَنَّهُ فَاتَّبَعُوهُ إِلَّا فَرِيقًا مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿۲۰﴾

﴾18﴿ Wa ja'alnaa bainahum wa bainal qural latee baaraknaa feehaa quran zaahiratanw wa qaddarnaa feehas sayr; seeroo feehaa la yaaliya wa aiyaaman aamineen
﴾19﴿ Faqaaloo Rabbanaa baa'id baina asfaarinaa wa zalamooo anfusahum faja'alnaahum ahaadeesa wa mazzaq naahum kulla mumazzaq; inna fee zaalika la Aayaatil likulli sabbaarin shakoor
﴾20﴿ Wa laqad saddaq 'alaihim Ibleesu zannabhoo fattaba'oohu illaa fareeqam minal mu'mineen

﴾18﴿ And We had placed between them and the towns We had blessed, (many) visible settlements, and We had measured the journey between them (saying), Travel between them safely by night and by day
﴾19﴿ But they said, "Our Lord, make the distances of our journeys longer," and they wronged themselves. So We made them stories (of warning) and scattered them in total dispersion. Indeed, in this are signs for every patient and grateful person
﴾20﴿ And indeed, Iblis proved his assumption about them to be true, so they followed him, except for a group of the believers

[18] In this commentary, (fa a‘raḍū) means that their turning away was an act of disbelief.
(Wa hal nujāzī illā al-kafūr) — In this, the intended meaning of rewarding is complete uprooting (i.e., total destruction), as happened to the people of Saba. This kind of punishment is specific to disbelievers.
A second interpretation is that mujāzāh here means complete retribution—that not even a single sin is forgiven, and every sin is punished. This, too, is specific to disbelievers, because some of the sins of the believers are either forgiven through their acts of worship or simply by the grace of Allah, and they are not punished for every sin.
[19] In this verse, their ingratitude and then their punishment are mentioned. Their request to replace blessings was similar to how the Children of Israel, in exchange for manna and salwa, asked for earthly plants; and how the disbelievers of Mecca, in exchange for safety, asked for punishment from Allah—like in Surah Al-Anfal (8:32).
So, their prayers were accepted, and those towns and settlements became few and ruined, and were scattered far from each other.
(Wa mazzaqnāhum) — means We scattered them across various lands. Some went to the Levant (Sham), some to Oman, some to Iraq, some to Tihamah. ‘Amr ibn ‘Āmir, the ancestor of the Aws and Khazraj tribes, came to Madinah al-Munawwarah.
(Ṣabbār shakūr) — refers to the believer, because patience and gratitude are occasionally shown by disbelievers too, but true and consistent patience and gratitude are the traits of the believer.
[20] This describes the condition of the people of Saba: they turned away and were ungrateful, so punishment came upon them. This was due to their following of Iblis.
(Ẓannahu) — The issue here is that when Iblis tries to mislead the children of Adam, he always uses emphatic expressions with lām and nūn thaqīlah (heavy emphasis), as seen in Surah Al-A‘rāf (7:16–17), Surah Al-Ḥijr (15:39), Surah Al-Isrā’ (17:62), and Surah An-Nisā’ (4:118–119)—which all indicate certainty. So why is the word ẓann (assumption) used here?
The answer is: a created being cannot have certainty about future events because the unseen is unknown to creation. But due to Iblis’s firm resolve and determination, emphatic wording was used. Still, from a knowledge perspective, it was only a ẓann (assumption), not certainty.
(Illā farīqan mina al-mu’minīn) — One meaning is that they followed Iblis in shirk and disbelief, except for a group—the believers—who did not follow him.
The second meaning is that even from among the believers, some may follow Iblis in various sins. But those who did not follow him in any way are a specific group among the believers—the prophets—who are pure and protected.
Thus, this verse is proof of the infallibility of the prophets (peace be upon them), because the only ones who never followed Iblis in any way can only be the prophets. If prophets were to be proven sinful, others would gain superiority over them—which is an invalid and false notion.