And when the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, was sent forth and disbelief had spread across the earth, they had increased in denying the Hour and were resolute in their denial of it. Some of them were explicit, and some were implicit, due to their deviation from the path of the messengers. What is appropriate for the wise scholar is not to assert anything except after fully encompassing his knowledge of it. He said mockingly to them, as you would say to the most ignorant of people: 'How knowledgeable you are!' This was in jest, addressing their lack of awareness of it, clarifying their falsehood with the inconsistency of their words: 'Rather, they have grasped.' That is, they have reached and concluded. 'Their knowledge of the Hereafter' means its matter in totality: the knowledge of its timing and the magnitude of its greatness in it and other descriptions of it, due to their denial of it and their collusion against it, and the variation of expressions regarding it. The branching of the saying in this matter is in the recitation of Ibn Kathir and Abu Amr, as well as in the recitation of the others: 'They have grasped' meaning 'they have caught up,' which indicates continuity and certainty.

And when they were with their declaration of cutting off in denying it, they were lying in their cutting off, confused in their ignorance. They may express - as a proof that they have no knowledge of it - with doubt. Allah, the Exalted, said: "Rather, they are in doubt." And when it was due to the intensity of its appearance, for the strength of its evidence, as if it were present, He expressed it with "from it," meaning: beginning. And when they would assert the denial of it at times and hesitate at others, the true state of one who denies something at times with certainty and at other times with doubt is described as profound ignorance. He said: "Rather, they are." And when man is naturally inclined to deficiencies that lead to his tyranny and his exaggeration in pride in all his affairs, nothing weakens those deficiencies in him except the fear of presenting himself before his Lord, which leads to his ignorance. And his persistence in his vile actions, He said, advancing to the neighbor: "From it, they are blind," meaning: their profound blindness began from their confusion in its matter. They preferred, and their misguidance blinded them from all that benefits them. Thus, they became unable to benefit from their intellects; rather, the benefit of it turned into harm, and its good into evil. And he attributed what he mentioned to all who are in the heavens and the earth, because the actions of some may be ascribed to all for a purpose, which here is to alert to the greatness of this matter and the ultimate description of it. And that it is obligatory for all to take care of it, to stand upon its truth, and to refrain from its falsehood, or due to the doubt of some and the silence of the rest for the purpose of belittling it. Or that the perception of knowledge, as far as the belittling is concerned, is established by the evidence that is clearer than the sun. They, with it, are in the strength of one who has grasped his knowledge of something, yet he turns away from it. He has missed for himself from the good what he does not know its essence. Then he descended another degree with doubt, then he completely destroyed it, and he brought it down to the blindness of the rank of animals that have no concern except for the pleasure of the belly and the private parts. This is like one who hears of the differences of the sects and the misguidance of some of them towards others, so he misguides some of them without considering his words, and he becomes confused like a blind person. His matter becomes easy for his adversary, or due to doubt because their actions are the actions of the doubter, or because they, due to lack of knowledge of the time itself, are as if they are in doubt, rather blind. And because intellects and sciences do not independently grasp anything from its matter, rather it is taken from Allah through His messengers from the king and mankind. And whoever takes something from its knowledge from others has indeed gone astray.