And when this is not a text regarding their deserving of punishment, Allah, the Exalted, said, adding to what you can understand: "And Allah will surely punish them when you have turned away from them and they do not believe, so they do not seek forgiveness." ﴿And what is with them﴾ Abu Hayyan said: The apparent meaning is that "what" is interrogative, meaning: What is there for them in the absence of punishment? This is an inquiry whose meaning is to affirm, meaning: How can they not be punished while they are characterized by this attribute that necessitates punishment, which is their preventing the believers from the Sacred Mosque, and they are not its guardians? This is concluded.

And the meaning of the words is: And what share do they have in ﴿Does Allah not punish them﴾, meaning: He who has complete might and greatness over the oppressor and honor and kindness towards the obedient, immediately ﴿while they﴾ meaning: while they are deserving of punishment, so it is inevitable for them, no doubt about it, even if the duration of its occurrence is delayed and its time is slow in coming to them, it will make them forget what they have gained from pleasures, even if their significance is great to them and their duration is long; because they ﴿prevent﴾ meaning: they create the prevention ﴿from the mosque﴾ meaning: whoever intends to honor it with the prayer for which the mosque was established and others ﴿the Sacred﴾ meaning: the great, whose sanctity is recognized by everyone, so there is no exclusivity for it to one person over another, meaning: their affair is the act of truly preventing in the past, present, and future; they do not cease from that, just as they used to prevent whomever they wished from entering the house and would say: We are its guardians, we do what we want, and they prevented the believers from performing Tawaf around it by torture and temptation, and they prevented the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and those with him by expulsion, then they prevented them in the year of Hudaybiyyah from reaching the house and in the year of the Conquest of the Umrah from staying after the three days. ﴿And what﴾ meaning: while it is the case that they had no right to that because they were not ﴿its guardians﴾ meaning: worthy of its guardianship in such a way that their prevention might have an effect; Al-Bukhari narrated in the Tafsir: "From Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: Abu Jahl said: ﴿O Allah, if this is the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky or bring us a painful punishment﴾ [Al-Anfal: 32] then it was revealed: ﴿And Allah would not punish them﴾ [Al-Anfal: 33] until ﴿from the Sacred Mosque﴾.

And when He negated guardianship from them, He mentioned its people and said.

﴿Indeed﴾ meaning: not ﴿its guardians﴾ meaning: by right ﴿except the righteous﴾ meaning: those who are established in this description by which they place between themselves and the wrath of Allah protections of obedience, not everyone who believes, but rather the special believers, and they are not like that due to their current involvement in disbelief ﴿but most of them do not know﴾ meaning: they do not have knowledge of matters to distinguish between truth and falsehood, the righteous and the wicked, and good outcomes and bad ones. And perhaps he expressed with "most" to indicate that among them are the obstinate, and because there were some among them who believed after that and became among the people of knowledge.