And when He condemned those who lagged behind by which - meaning from the condemnation - that they are doomed after He had stated that He had cursed them. And He had promised, glorified and exalted is He, the people of Al-Hudaybiyah the conquest of Khaybar as compensation for what prevented them from seizing the honored Mecca due to the profound and precise wisdom He has in that matter. And He concluded by stating that His command is decisive, and that was necessitating the encompassing of knowledge. This indicated both matters by His saying as a continuation, answering one who might have said: Will He forgive those who lagged behind until they are as if they did not lag behind? "He will say" meaning: with a promise that there is no breaking of it.

And when the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, was in a position where no one could hope to gain anything from him that contradicts the command of Allah, he dropped what he had expressed in mentioning them initially from his address and said: "Those who lagged behind" meaning: for those who hope in him from the companions to strive in enabling them to join his army due to the obscurity of the ruling upon him and similar to that. And he did not restrict them to the Bedouins so that it encompasses everyone who lags behind from others. "When you set forth" by the enabling of Allah for you "to the spoils."

And when the meaning of the word indicated taking, and the expression in the form of the utmost of the plural indicated its abundance, he clarified the first to eliminate the metaphor by saying: "So that you may take it" meaning: from Khaybar. "Leave us" meaning: in whatever condition you wish from the worldly states. "We will follow you" and when it was necessary from enabling them in that to contradict the promise of Allah that it is specific to the people of Al-Hudaybiyah, and that He expelled the hypocrites and thwarted their intention, He explained their saying with His saying: "They intend" meaning: by your going with you "to change the words of Allah" meaning: the encompassing of everything in power and knowledge in informing about their cursing and expulsion. And that the conquest of Khaybar is specific to the people of Al-Hudaybiyah, and no one shares with them in it except one who agrees with them in intention and migration, so that they may reach through that to sow doubt among the people of Islam in it. The intended meaning is that their action is the action of one who intends that, and it is not far that they may be of two types: some of them want that, and some of them do not want it but acted like one who wants it.

And when the listener is worthy of asking about what is said to them, he said addressing the most truthful of creation, blessings and peace be upon him: "Say" meaning: O beloved, when their words reach you, you yourself, for no one else can take your place in this important matter, with a confirmed saying: "You will never follow us" even if you strive in that. And he presented it in the form of negation even if the intended meaning is prohibition; because it, while being more emphatic, would be a sign of prophethood, and it is more severe and more indicative of contempt.

And when this emphasis was permitted, it indicated that it is from the One whose intention is never contradicted. He, exalted is He, clarified it by His saying: ﴿Thus﴾, meaning: like this wondrous saying of high status. ﴿Allah said﴾, meaning: the One who can only do what He intends, and He is not like the kings who have no power to forgive whom they wish and to punish whom they wish. ﴿Before﴾ this time, and He is the One for whom there can be no contradiction in His saying. For He has decreed that none shall attend “Khaybar,” intended by these spoils, except for those who attended Al-Hudaybiyyah. And He commanded that, so what He said came after the striving of some of those left behind in their contradiction. For they were changed by greed after hearing the saying of Allah. They sought to go out with him, blessings and peace be upon him, but they were prevented, and no one else attended it. This is because he, blessings and peace be upon him, returned from Al-Hudaybiyyah in Dhul-Hijjah in the sixth year, and he stayed until the middle of Muharram in the seventh year. He went out with the people of Al-Hudaybiyyah to Khaybar, and Allah granted him victory over it. He took all of its wealth, both movable and immovable. And after its conquest, his cousin, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, came to him while he was there, along with some of those with him from the emigrants of Abyssinia. The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, included them with the people of Al-Hudaybiyyah because they were not left behind, but they had been unable to attend due to a valid excuse of not being able to reach it.

And when they were hypocrites who did not believe anything of these sayings, but thought that they were tricks to achieve worldly desires, their statement to him caused a warning about their coarseness and the corruption of their assumptions: ﴿Then they will say﴾ the matter is not as mentioned regarding what they claimed to be the saying of Allah. ﴿But﴾ indeed, that is because you ﴿envy us﴾ and do not want any of the spoils to reach us. And when the estimation was: and the matter is not as they claimed, he arranged his saying: ﴿But they were﴾ meaning: by nature and disposition ﴿not understanding﴾ meaning: they do not understand with the understanding of the skilled expert ﴿except a little﴾ in their worldly affairs. Among that is their acknowledgment of faith for its sake, but as for the matters of the Hereafter, they do not understand anything of it.