And their nature of disbelief was confirmed by his saying, in addition to his saying, "Indeed, they have returned" [Al-An'am: 28], "And they said," meaning: after the rejection, what they used to say before death regarding the denial of resurrection, "Indeed, this is" meaning: what is this life that we are experiencing, "except our worldly life" meaning: the one we were upon before that, "and we are not" and they immersed themselves in denial, so they said: "We will not be resurrected" meaning: after we die, and our sight of what we saw before this from resurrection is nothing but magic with no reality to it. And witnessing resurrection did not benefit them, rather it harmed them. This is a possibility and apparent, but the most suitable for the context of the verses before and after is that this is a narration of their saying to him, blessings and peace be upon him, in this world, in addition to his saying: "And they said, 'Why was a messenger not sent down to him?'" [Al-An'am: 8], in the first manner.