And when these verses provided the motives for identifying those who intend to mislead, he said after the objection regarding what is between the clarifying and the clarified from the sentences, for the sake of greater attention to it: ﴿From those who have gone astray﴾. Then he clarified what they mislead with and what they mislead others with, by saying - and it may be that this is an initiation; meaning: some of them; or among them is one who -: ﴿They distort the words﴾; meaning: that which their legislation brought regarding the description of the unlettered Prophet ﷺ and the description of his religion and his community; and other than that which they intend to distort for a purpose; so they compose it in its inclination; and change it from its limit and its edge; to another limit; exceeding it; ﴿From﴾. And when the word, if changed, causes the speech to follow it; and this is the intended matter; he alerted to that by reminding the pronoun; so he said: ﴿Its places﴾; meaning: those which are most suitable for it; so their misguidance is completed; and their misleading; and this includes whether the changed meaning is far from the changed one; or close; for that which is in 'Al-Maidah' is more specific.

And when - glorified and exalted is He - was knowledgeable of all their distortions; he referred to it by the conjunction to what you estimate: 'So they say such and such; and they say such and such'; ﴿And they say we have heard﴾; meaning: what you say; ﴿And we have disobeyed﴾; implying that they intend to indicate that this is a narration of what occurred to their ancestors long ago; and they only intend that they themselves heard what you say; and they opposed it intentionally; so that whoever hears that thinks that they are upon insight in their opposition due to what they have of divine knowledge; to inherit from that doubt regarding his matter; and confusion regarding his affair; ﴿And listen﴾; while you are in a state of ﴿Not hearing﴾; implying the absence of hearing what you dislike; from their saying: 'So-and-so made so-and-so hear the speech'; and they only intend the invocation; as it is said: 'Listen, not that you heard'; ﴿And be mindful of us﴾; implying the intention of consideration; and turning towards them; and they only intend to insult with the term 'rudeness'; and Al-Asfahani said: It is possible that it resembles a Hebrew word; which they used to insult each other with; and it is: 'Be mindful of us'; so they - mockingly regarding the religion; and jesting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ - spoke to him with a speech that is ambiguous; intending by it insult and humiliation; while appearing to show respect and honor; and for that he said: ﴿Twisting with their tongues﴾; meaning: diverting it from the exits of the letters that are rightful for it in Arabic; to what the Hebrews do of exaggerating some letters; and mixing some of them with others; intending meanings that are vile to them; while having the possibility of intending meanings other than those; which the Arabs intend; which are beautiful; ﴿And an attack on the religion﴾; meaning: by what they interpret it with for those whom they hope for from those vile meanings.

And when he mentioned these directed words, he clarified what would have been upon them had they stood firm. So he said, cutting off their argument: "And if they had said"; meaning in response to him, blessings and peace be upon him, "We have heard and we obeyed"; meaning instead of the first word; "And listen and look at us"; instead of what follows it; "It would have been"; meaning this saying; "better for them"; meaning than that; due to their lack of incurring sin; "and more upright"; meaning due to the absence of the possibility of blame; "But Allah has cursed them"; meaning He has expelled them, He who possesses all attributes of greatness and perfection, and distanced them from good; "because of their disbelief"; meaning due to their baseness in what they cover of the lights of truth and signs of goodness; so they did not say that.

And when their expulsion was caused by the continuation of their disbelief, he said: "So they will not believe"; meaning that faith will not renew for them; "except for a few"; meaning among them; an exception from the conjunction; for they do believe; or it is an exception that is empty of the source of "believing"; meaning from their belief in some of the verses; which does not benefit them due to their disbelief in others.