And when He, glorified and exalted is He, informed about the locks of their hearts, He clarified the origin of that. He said, emphasizing awareness [for those who do not care about it], that it is something that should be given attention to, so that a person may free himself from it. This is a denial of those who say that this is good: "Indeed, those who have turned back"; meaning: they have dealt with their souls in the struggle against the original nature in returning from Islam. This is what is meant by His saying: "upon their heels"; meaning: from the People of the Book and others. They turned the faces of matters to their backs, and they fell into misguidance and disbelieved.

And when what they are blamed for is leaving what the Prophet ﷺ brought them from what Allah, glorified and exalted is He, revealed to him of the Shari'ah, not what is in their instincts from the religion, which is enough for guidance to it by the light of reason, and the blame is attached to them even if their apostasy was in the slightest time, the emphasis was established, so He said: "after it became clear"; the utmost clarity that has no ambiguity with it in any way, and the utmost appearance "to them" with the evidences that are so evident that they are sufficient without an explicit statement "the guidance"; meaning: that which our Messenger ﷺ brought to them.

And when they had burned themselves with that and distanced themselves to the utmost distance from all good, He expressed about the misguided in a way that indicates that, saying: "the devil"; meaning: the one who is burned with the curse and far from mercy. "He made it seem good to them"; meaning: he beautified for them with his adornment and the misguidance that occurred to them, which resulted in slackness in their resolve and lethargy in their ambitions. They followed him in his intent in long hopes and the excess of falling into mistakes and wishes from all desires and ailments, after he beautified for them the evil deed, by Allah allowing him to have power over them. This is due to what He, glorified and exalted is He, knew of their state of the original nature. "And He prolonged for them"; meaning: He extended in that and widened it by repeating it upon them over the succession of generations and the passage of time until they forgot the admonitions and turned away from the remembrance. This is according to the reading of the group with the opening of the hamzah and the lam. As for according to the reading of the Basrians with the damm of the hamzah and the kasr of the lam, the intended meaning is that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, is the one who is prolonging - meaning: delaying - for them by extending their lifespan and bestowing blessings, facilitating wishes and forbearance from hastening them with punishments, until they were deceived. This is also in agreement with His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "We will gradually lead them on from where they do not know" [Al-Qalam: 44] "And I prolonged for them; indeed, My plan is firm" [Al-Qalam: 45]. As for in the reading of Abu Amr with the opening of the ya, it is a past action built for the object, and it indicates that the one who is prolonging is Allah, glorified and exalted is He. The reading of Ya'qub with the sukoon on the ya indicates that it is a present tense verb, its hamzah is for the speaker.