Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And We had no authority over you, but you were a people who transgressed.”

Allah Mighty and Majestic said: The grammatical analysis of this sentence is clear: “ma” is a negation particle, and “kana” is a past tense verb that puts the subject in the accusative case and raises the predicate. “Min sultan” is its deferred subject, in the genitive case due to the preposition “min,” which is extra for grammatical purposes. “Lana” is the advanced predicate. This is contrary to those who said that “ma” is the Hijazi “ma” and that “kana” is extra, because if you said “And We have no authority over you,” the speech would be correct. Here, “kana” is intended to indicate existence, as it points to an action or a past time. This is unlike if it were omitted, in which case it would not indicate the past time. Therefore, it is established here that “ma” is a negation particle and “kana” is a non-extra past tense verb.