And when he warned them against taking allies besides Him, he began to clarify that the ally which some of them take is not suitable for affection due to the good deeds it possesses, unless those good deeds are placed on the foundation of faith which is clarified by its proofs. He said, leading to the response of one who said: Indeed, among them are good deeds that call for refraining from them, such as the construction of the Sacred Mosque, serving it, and honoring it! ﴿It is not for the polytheists﴾ he expressed with description rather than action because a group of those who associated partners later embraced Islam and thus became worthy of what was negated from them ﴿to maintain the mosques of Allah﴾ meaning: He is glorified and exalted in His encompassing attributes of perfection; Al-Baghawi said: Al-Hasan said: It was not for the polytheists to be left and thus be the people of the Sacred Mosque. Then he said in explaining the reading of the plural: Al-Hasan said: He only said: mosques of Allah; because it is the qibla of all mosques - meaning, whoever maintains it maintains all the mosques, and it is permissible that the genus is intended. And if they are not suitable for maintaining the genus, then the Sacred Mosque is included because it is the head of the genus, and that is more emphatic because it is by way of metaphor - Al-Farra said: And sometimes the Arabs refer to the singular as the plural and to the plural as the singular; do you not see that a man rides a horse and says: I have taken to riding horses, and it is said: So-and-so is abundant in dirhams and dinars. Thus it is clarified that the meaning is: preventing them from establishing His rituals by performing Tawaf or visiting or otherwise because they are impure - as will come.

﴿Witnesses against themselves﴾ meaning: which is the source of impurities and desires ﴿with disbelief﴾ meaning: with their acknowledgment; because it is the House of Allah and they worship other than Allah and have set up idols in it without His permission and claimed that they are His partners. Therefore, their maintaining it is destruction due to the contradiction of their contract and their actions. Al-Baghawi said: Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, said: Their testimony is their prostration to the idols, and that is because they had set up their idols outside the Sacred House at the corners and they would perform Tawaf around the House naked; whenever they completed a round, they would prostrate to their idols.

And when he negated the ugliness of what they do, he affirmed the goodness of what they believe, indicating their distance from good by saying: ﴿Those are the ones whose deeds have become worthless﴾ meaning: from construction, serving, providing water, and other than that, it has become nullified due to the invalidity of its meanings for being built on a foundation other than that of faith ﴿and in the Fire they are﴾ meaning: specifically, and whoever does as they have done is from them ﴿abiding forever﴾ meaning: by placing disbelief in the place of faith.