And when he encouraged repentance, he warned against being negligent about it. He said: "Indeed, those who disbelieved" meaning in Allah and His commands, and he omitted the conjunction due to what has preceded from his saying "after their faith in Him" by that. And since disbelief, due to its abhorrence, ugliness, and heinousness, is deserving of repulsion from it and distance from it, Allah, glorified and exalted is He, alerted to that by distancing its occurrence. So how about continuing in it? How about increasing in it! And he expressed that with a tool of delay, saying: "Then they increased in disbelief" meaning that they persisted in that and did not hasten to repentance. "Their repentance will not be accepted" meaning if they repent, because Allah, glorified and exalted is He, seals upon their hearts, so they do not repent with a sincere repentance that they remain upon and rectify what has been corrupted. Or, there will not be found among them a repentance until acceptance is arranged for it, because they have exceeded the people of the first category by persisting, and he did not come with the conjunction that indicates it is a consequence of what preceded, informing that this is only because they are sealed upon their hearts, predisposed to disbelief by their very nature, so they will never repent with a true repentance. The true cause is the sealing, not the sin. And this includes whoever repented from something that occurred from him, like Abu 'Izzah al-Jumahi, and whoever did not repent, like Huyayy ibn Akhtab. "And those are" meaning specifically "the misguided ones" meaning those who are deeply immersed in misguidance, and to this he pointed: "And if He had made them hear, they would have turned away" [Al-Anfal: 23] due to their falling into the most distant ravines and the narrowest paths. So how can they return from it and escape from it!