﴿Their hearts are distracted﴾ means that their hearts are immersed in amusement, occupied with it from what the Quran has urged them towards, and what the Furqan has alerted them to, and what the clarification has warned them against. Al-Razi said in Al-Lawa'ih: "Distracted" means "occupied" from the root لَهَيْتُ (lahaytu), or "seeking amusement" from the root لَهَوْتُ (lahawtu) - this is the end of the quote. It is possible that by "people" here, the generality is intended, and it could be from the perspective of His saying, ﴿And they did not measure Allah with His true measure﴾ [Az-Zumar: 67] and the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: "I cannot enumerate Your praise." And it may specifically refer to the disbelievers.

And when He mentioned what they show in the state of listening from amusement and play, He mentioned what they conceal from consulting each other to turn away from it and employing tricks to repel it, and ensuring some of them for others in remaining steadfast against it. He said, adding to "listening": ﴿And they conspired﴾, meaning the people referred to, ﴿in secret﴾, meaning they intensified the secrecy of their words because of the mention, for indeed, conversation in private in the language is secrecy - this is as stated in the dictionary. Imam Abu Abdullah Al-Qazzaz said in his Diwan: "And the secret conversation is the speech between two, like secrecy and consultation."

And when He informed about the evil of their intentions, He replaced their pronoun with what indicated the reason that led them to that, saying: ﴿Those who have wronged﴾. Then He clarified what they conspired about, saying: ﴿Did﴾, meaning they said in their secret conversation this, expressing astonishment at his claim to prophethood while he is similar to them in humanity: "Did ﴿this﴾ that has come to you with this reminder ﴿not a human like you﴾, meaning in his creation and morals of eating, drinking, life, and death? How can he be singled out for you with the message? What is this that has come to you with that which you cannot produce anything like? (p-384) Except magic, which has no reality to it. So then, this denial led to their saying: ﴿Will you come to magic while you﴾, meaning while you are ﴿seeing﴾ with your eyes that he is a human like you, and with your insight that these miracles he brings could be magic? So, how astonishing it is for a people who saw what incapacitated them and did not allow that it could be from the Most Merciful, calling to success in Paradise, and they insisted that it is from the devil, calling to humiliation, by burning in the fires. And it is also astonishing that they denied the exclusivity of the message while witnessing what Allah has granted some people over others in intelligence and insight, good character and morals, strength and health, long life and abundant provision - and similar matters of divination, fortune-telling, and soothsaying, and they come to their possessors to ask them about what they have of that knowledge.