59فَبَدَّلَ الَّذينَ ظَلَموا قَولًا غَيرَ الَّذي قيلَ لَهُم فَأَنزَلنا عَلَى الَّذينَ ظَلَموا رِجزًا مِنَ السَّماءِ بِما كانوا يَفسُقونَMuhammad AsadBut those who were bent on evildoing substituted another saying for that which had been given them:1 and so We sent down upon those evildoers a plague from heaven in requital for all their iniquity.According to several Traditions (extensively quoted by Ibn Kathir), they played, with a derisive intent, upon the word hittah, substituting for it something irrelevant or meaningless. Muhammad 'Abduh, however, is of the opinion that the "saying" referred to in verse 58 is merely a metaphor for an attitude of mind demanded of them, and that, correspondingly, the "substitution" signifies here a wilful display of arrogance in disregard of God's command (see Manar I, 324 f.).