And when the silent one is sometimes made sufficient by another's words, he negated that by saying, confirming it by making it past: ﴿And it was not﴾. And when the situation was to belittle them by belittling their partners, he arranged the negation of the painful benefit for them in this order. It is permissible that by this arrangement he means specification, so it is said: ﴿For them﴾, meaning specifically at that time and not after it. And it was not in the count of that before, if they had understood. As for others, from those who can be described as criminals for being from the people of hidden polytheism, they may be interceded for by those who raised them, from the martyrs, scholars, and the general believers ﴿from their partners﴾, whom they claimed to be special, so that their mixing and their excessive ignorance in their saying: ﴿These are our intercessors with Allah﴾ [Yunus: 18] may become clear to them. As for others, what is called intercession may occur from them sometimes explicitly and at other times allusively, like the general intercession from our Prophet ﷺ for the creation in general for the separation of judgment, and his ﷺ saying about certain people: "My companions to me, to me," and it will be said: "Indeed, you do not know what they innovated after you," and he will say: "So be gone, be gone." And the saying of Ibrahim, blessings and peace be upon him: ﴿And whoever disobeys me, then indeed, You are Forgiving and Merciful﴾ [Ibrahim: 36] ﴿Intercessors﴾ will save them from what they are in and what they will face. And bringing it in the form of a plural of multitude may have no meaning, because its source is the rejection of their belief in their previous saying. And it may be understood that there may occur from some of those whom they worshiped an intercession, or an allusion to it, like the saying of Isa, blessings be upon him: ﴿And if You forgive them, then indeed, You are the Exalted in Might, the Wise﴾ [Al-Ma'idah: 118].

And when he mentioned the state of the intercessors with them, he mentioned their state with the intercessors and said: ﴿And they were﴾, meaning a state that is in the utmost firmness ﴿with their partners﴾, meaning specifically ﴿disbelievers﴾, meaning disavowing them, concealing that they had believed them to be gods and worshiped them, following their custom in what does not benefit them from obstinacy and falsehood.