And when the intention was to generalize, it was brought as an indefinite noun to convey that. This is supported by what the scholars have transmitted from the narrators regarding the conquests of the lands. Among them is the scholar Abu al-Rabi' ibn Salim al-Kal'ayi, who said in his book: The sufficiency in the incident of Jalula from the lands of Persia: (p-436) They said: Some of them said: The farmers were for the roads, bridges, markets, agriculture, and the guidance with the tribute from their hands according to their capacity. And the landowners were for the tribute from their hands and the construction. They only took the tribute from the Magians because the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, took it from the Magians of Hajar, and he took it from them because they are people of a book originally. Al-Shafi'i said in the chapter of the general and the specific from the book of the differences of hadith: The Magians are people of a book other than the Torah and the Gospel, and they have forgotten their book and altered it. So the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, permitted taking the tribute from them. Sufyan informed us from Abu Sa'd Sa'id ibn Marzuban from Nasr ibn Asim who said: Al-Furwah ibn Nufal al-Ashja'i said: Why is the tribute taken from the Magians when they are not people of a book? Then al-Mustawrid stood up to him and took him by the collar and said: O enemy of Allah! You are criticizing Abu Bakr and Umar and Ali, the Commander of the Faithful - meaning Ali - while they took the tribute from them. So he took him to the palace, and Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, came out to them and said: The beginning! The beginning! So they sat in the shade of the palace, and Ali said: I am the most knowledgeable of people regarding the Magians. They had knowledge that they knew and a book that they studied. And their king became drunk and had relations with his daughter or sister, and some of the people of his kingdom witnessed it. When he sobered up, they came to impose the punishment upon him, but he refused them. So he called the people of his kingdom and said: You know a religion (p-437) better than the religion of Adam, and Adam used to marry his sons to his daughters. So I am upon the religion of Adam. So they pledged allegiance to him and fought those who opposed them until they killed them. They became as they had been, and their book was taken away from among them, and the knowledge that was in their chests was lost. They are people of a book, and the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and Abu Bakr and Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, took the tribute from them. And when he commanded to fight them and described them with what is the cause that led to that, he included some of their sayings that permit fighting them, which necessitate their punishment. He said: And the people of the book said because they disbelieved in what we described them with. And the Jews said among them lies and slander: Uzair is the son of Allah. The tanween of 'Asim and al-Kisai clarifies that it is an initiator, while the others prevented it considering its foreignness along with its proper name, and there is no diminutive in it. The report in the reading is their saying: The son of Allah, meaning: the one who has absolute exaltation, for there is nothing like Him. And this Uzair is the one mentioned among them in the Book of the Prophets, Malachi, and he is also called 'Azar, which is the original, and Uzair is its Arabicization. As for the one who compiled for them this Torah that is in their hands, Samawal ibn Yahya al-Maghribi, who was a Jew and then converted to Islam, said: It is another person named Ezra, and he is not a prophet; he mentioned that in his book: The ultimate goal in refuting the Christians and the Jews, and it is a very good book. This Samawal, with his mastery of the knowledge of the Jewish law and their news, was also proficient in the sciences of geometry and others, and he was eloquent and articulate (p-438). He was a good Muslim, and his intellect was exemplary. I saw the Jews in extreme enmity towards him, and some of them showed me a letter to him from some of their rabbis that belittled his opinion regarding his Islam and confused him with some rhetorical and poetic matters. He responded to him with a brilliant reply, beginning with the words of Allah, the Most High: The foolish among the people will say: What has turned them away from their qiblah which they used to face? [Al-Baqarah: 142] Then he refuted his words in the best manner and then said to him what amounts to: Leave aside such superstitions and respond to the matters that I have obliged you with in the book of the ultimate goal. So he could not find a response. Then the one who said this among them narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, that they are four, and it was said: The speaker is one, and it was attributed to all as it is said: So-and-so rides horses, although he may not have more than one horse. And it is like His saying, the Most High: Those to whom the people said [Aali 'Imran: 173]. And it was said: It was widespread among them, and when Allah reproached them for it, they abandoned it, and they now deny it. And Allah, the Most High, is more truthful in speech. And the Christians said, meaning: among them, lies and aggression: The Messiah. And they informed about him with their saying: The son of Allah, meaning: while He has absolute richness and the greatest perfection. And this Messiah is the son of Mary, the daughter of 'Imran. Then he resumed his speech, translating the sayings of both of their groups: That is, the statement far removed from the minds that contradict the narrations: Their saying with their mouths, meaning: a truth that they did not hesitate to say, with (p-439) its absurdity. And it is, despite that, a statement whose reality does not transcend the mouths to the minds because no sane person can conceive it. Rather, it is a meaningless statement like the sounds of mute animals that do not have a meaning; he said: And its meaning is that its speaker has no intellect, and it has no meaning beyond that. And for its distance from being intended for a sane person, he expressed it with the mouths that are further from the tongues to the hearts.

And when it was as if it was said: So what is with them if this is their condition that they said it? He means by saying: Indeed, they are a people who are inclined to resemble those who commit corruptions, just as they resembled the idol worshippers. They worshipped them more than once while the prophets were among them calling them to Allah, and their Book calls out to them with something similar and warns them with the strongest warning. "They resemble" means: in the state of their saying this, "the saying of those who disbelieved" means: with something like it, and they are the Arabs when they said: "The angels are the daughters of Allah," just as when they saw those who were devoted to their idols, they said: "O Musa, make for us a god just as they have gods" [Al-A'raf: 138].

And when it was not impossible that those who resembled them were either after them or in their time before he clarifies the corruption of their saying, he negated that by saying, indicating by the preposition that their disbelief did not encompass the time before: ﴿before﴾ meaning: before this saying occurred from them. This is evidence that the Arabs changed the religion of Isma'il, peace be upon him. They dared to make such a statement before the occurrence of Bukhṭanṣar with the Jews or within its limits. This is not far-fetched given the length of time and the temptation of Satan. There was between the time of Ibrahim and 'Uzayr, peace be upon them, about one thousand five hundred years—this is according to what some scholars of the People of the Book mentioned from their books, and it is supported by what al-Mas'udi mentioned in Murūj al-Dhahab regarding the history of the kings of Babylon from Nimrud to Bukhṭanṣar. Some historians mentioned that between the two times there is an increase of over two thousand years, noting that they have transmitted what is explicit in the disbelief of the Arabs during that time. They narrated from Hisham ibn al-Kalbi that he said: The beginning of the descent of the Arabs to the land of Iraq was that Allah, the Exalted, revealed to Barkhiyā from the descendants of Yahuda to go to Bukhṭanṣar and command him to invade the Arabs who had no locks on their houses and to trample their land with troops, killing their fighters, capturing their offspring, and seizing their wealth. And inform him of their disbelief in Me and their taking of deities besides Me and their denying My prophets and messengers. And from another source besides ibn al-Kalbi, he composed what was between Uballah and al-Ilah with horses and men, then they entered upon the Arabs and showcased every living being they could overpower. And Allah commanded Barkhiyā and Irmiyā regarding Ma'd ibn 'Adnan, from whom Muhammad, the Seal of Prophethood, was born. He mentioned their resemblance to the people of polytheism as a means of belittling their status, which emboldened them to confront them, as he made them similar to those who trained for their fighting and imposed upon them, thus humiliating them after they had been in honor that they did not fear its loss, and with strong resolves that they did not fear their dissolution. All of this was by obeying Allah in fighting them and seeking His pleasure by battling them, for He was against them, and whoever was against Him would not succeed. And to such a thing, he indicated by saying regarding these: ﴿May Allah destroy them﴾ meaning: the greatest king has destroyed them; for whoever fought Him did not escape from Him. And it was said: He cursed them; it was narrated from Ibn 'Abbas that he said: And everything in the Qur'an like it is a curse.

﴿How are they turned away﴾ meaning: How and from where are they diverted from the truth while the decisive evidence stands for it?