His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And the Day We gather them all together, then We say to those who associated partners [with Allah], 'Where are your partners that you used to claim?' So We will separate between them. And their partners will say, 'You were not worshipping us.'" "So sufficient is Allah as a witness between us and you, if we were of your worship, certainly unaware." "There, every soul will be fully aware of what it has brought forth, and they will be returned to Allah, their true Lord, and lost from them is what they used to invent."

Nafi', Ibn Kathir, Abu 'Amr, 'Asim, Al-Hasan, Shaiba, and others read: "We gather them" with the letter 'n', while a group read: "He gathers them" with the letter 'y'. The pronoun in "We gather them" refers to all people, both good-doers and wrong-doers. And "Where are your partners?" is in the accusative case, implying: 'Stay in your place.' This is associated with a state of severity and disgrace. And "Where are your partners?" in this context is one of the names of actions, as its meaning is: 'Stop and remain.' This is a statement from Allah, exalted and majestic is He, about the state that will be for the idol worshippers on the Day of Resurrection, being commanded to remain in the place of disgrace with their idols. Then Allah will cause the idols to speak, disavowing them. And His saying: "And your partners" means: those whom you claim are partners with Allah. He attributed them to them because their being partners is only by the claim of these people. And His saying: "So We will separate between them" means: We will differentiate in the argument and the doctrine. It is like when I remove something from something else; it is a strong emphasis that does not exceed. And the source of "separate" is "separation," indicating that "separate" is indeed a causative form, not an active form, because its source would come in the form of a causative verb. A group read: "So We differentiated between them." It has been narrated from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that "when the disbelievers see the punishment and their means are cut off, it will be said to them: 'Follow what you used to worship.' They will say: 'We used to worship these.' Then the idols will say: 'By Allah, we did not hear or understand, and you were not worshipping us.' They will say: 'By Allah, we were indeed worshipping you.' Then the deities will say: 'So sufficient is Allah as a witness.'"

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The apparent meaning of this verse is that their dialogue is only with the idols, not with the angels or Jesus, son of Mary, as indicated by His saying to them: "Where are your partners?" And not with Pharaoh or those who were worshipped from the jinn, as indicated by their saying: "If we were indeed unaware of your worship." And these did not ever forget about the worship of those whom they worshipped. And "you" is in the nominative case, with the predicate being: 'You are reproached' or 'You are humiliated.' It is also possible that "you" is an affirmation of the pronoun in the implied action, which is 'Stop' or something similar.

'And 'witnessing' is in the accusative as a distinguishing feature. It is said to be in the accusative as a state. And 'if' here, according to Sibawayh, is a softened affirmative particle of beginning. The 'lam' is necessary to differentiate it from 'if' that negates. Al-Farra' said: 'if' means 'what', and the 'lam' means 'except'. And 'there' is in the accusative as an adverbial expression. Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Abu Amr, Asim, and Ibn Amer read 'you will test' with a single 'ba' meaning: you will examine. Hamzah and Al-Kisai read 'you will follow' with a 'ta' with two dots above, meaning: you will seek and follow what it has presented of its deeds. It is correct that it can mean: you read its books that are raised to it. Yahya ibn Wathab read 'and they will return' with a broken 'ra'. The majority read 'and return to Allah', meaning: return to the punishment of their Master and the severity of His might. He is their Lord in sovereignty and encompassing, not in mercy and victory and the like.