What is the meaning of Alaraf 7 verse 164

[ahmed frihy]

In the name of Allah the compassionating the compassionate
Brothers and sisters in Islam ....Assalamo alikom
In Surat Alaraf v.164.
وَإِذْ قَالَتْ أُمَّةٌ مِنْهُمْ لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا قَالُوا مَعْذِرَةً إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ The verse painted a picture of groups of Jews arguing between among themselves about the repetitive incidents of working on the Sabbaths or Saturdays The questions in this Quranic dialogue are :which group said what to the other group ? And my second question is which group is the on the right path and which is wrong doer
There are two opinions :
1-First opinion is that the discussion took place between the disobedient group who insisted on working on the Sabbath by preparing their nets to catch the fish and insisting on doing that against Allah's warning not to do it and the second group is the group of the pious who refrained from working on Saturdays
Then in this dialogue who said { why do you advice some people that -according to you -Allah shall destroy or give them severe punishment.} if this is the case then one may say that the Kafirs said that to the Muslims.
On the other hand one can say hang on the Muslims are the ones who said it to the Kafirs meaning that your insistence on doing the wrong thing so that definitely Allah shall punish you or give you a severe punishment.
The weakness in this argument is that the rest of the verse is saying {Perhaps they may take heed or fear } taking that the Muslims are the ones advising the Kafirs then the dialogue should read { Perhaps" you" would fear } instead of "they."would fear.
2-The second opinion which is the stronger of two is that is that the discussion involves three parties , the kafirs , and two groups of pious Jews one of them advised the Kafirs and one did not.In this case the group of Muslims who did not advice the Kafirs asking the other Muslim group why do you advice the kafirs knowing that Allah shall destroy them or punish them for their insisting in doing the wrong things
Allaho Alam
Assalamo alikom