And when the estimation was made after this representation, description, and allure that dazzles the minds: [So among the people are those] who hear from you with the utmost love and fairness, and Allah elevates him by understanding what he recites, believing in it, acting upon it, and relying on it. They are the righteous who have been promised Paradise. He then referred to His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And among them are those who listen﴾ meaning: with utmost effort, perhaps he finds in the recited a flaw by which he doubts the weak. And the Exalted clarified their distance by His saying: ﴿To you﴾. And when He singled out the listener, looking at the word “who” as an indication of the fewness of the listeners, He gathered the look at its meaning as an indication of the multitude of those who turn away, the rigid, and the mockers among the listeners and the hearers. So He said, the Exalted: ﴿Until﴾ meaning: and their exertion continued (p-226) in exhausting themselves by listening until ﴿when they left﴾ meaning: the listeners and the hearers all together ﴿from your presence, they said﴾ meaning: the two groups, in blindness and willful ignorance and mockery. And when the mere acquisition of beneficial knowledge is helpful, He pointed to its greatness by building it upon what has not been named its doer, so He said, the Exalted: ﴿For those who have been given knowledge﴾ meaning: because of Allah's preparation for them with what He has granted them of clarity of understanding due to their detachment from the souls and desires, and their submission to what the original nature calls to: ﴿What did he say﴾ meaning: the Prophet ﷺ ﴿earlier﴾ meaning: before our separation and our leaving him from an hour - meaning: the first time - he drew near to him, from the freshness of the prayer - with the movement, and it is the beginning of it and its first part. Abu Hayyan said: a state, meaning: beginning, meaning: what is the saying [that] he has just said now before our separation from him. And he refuted the notion of it being a circumstance by stating that it is an interpretation of a meaning, and that no one among the grammarians has counted it among the circumstances. [And] Al-Baghawi said: I began the matter: I initiated it, and the beginning of a thing is its first part. Al-Muqatil said: and that is because the Prophet ﷺ used to give sermons and criticize the hypocrites, and when they would leave the mosque, they would ask Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, in mockery: What did Muhammad ﷺ say? Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: And I was asked about those who were asked.

And when this indicated from the attentive and from the turner away to the utmost rigidity that indicates the utmost misery, it produced His saying: ﴿Those﴾ meaning: specifically these distant ones from understanding and from all good ﴿whom Allah has sealed﴾ meaning: the Greatest King, whose greatness is beyond measure, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿upon their hearts﴾ meaning: so they did not believe and did not understand the understanding of benefit; for such rigidity cannot occur except by that. And when the estimation was: that they have gone astray until they became like beasts, He referred to what is from the actions of beasts by saying: ﴿And they followed﴾ meaning: with utmost effort ﴿their desires﴾ meaning: opposing the dictates of reason and the prohibitions of honor. Therefore, they take lightly the greatest of words and turn towards gathering debris, so they are the people of the Fire referred to before the verse of “The example of Paradise” by the fact that their evil deeds have been adorned for them.