His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

"Your God is one God. As for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, their hearts are in denial, and they are arrogant." "Certainly, Allah knows what they conceal and what they declare. Indeed, He does not love the arrogant." "And when it is said to them, 'What has your Lord sent down?' they say, 'Legends of the ancients.'" "So that they may bear their burdens completely on the Day of Resurrection, and from the burdens of those whom they mislead without knowledge. Indeed, evil is what they bear."

When the description of the idols had preceded, the true news of the Oneness came. This is an address to all people, informing that Allah, exalted and majestic is He, is One with complete Oneness, needing no addition to it. Then He informed about the denial of the hearts of the disbelievers, and that they believe in the divinity of other things, and they are arrogant about rejecting their belief in it and discarding the way of their forefathers in its worship. He characterized them as those who do not believe in the Hereafter, as it is the strongest rank of disbelief, meaning the combination of denying Allah, blessed and exalted is He, and denying resurrection. For every truth in resurrection makes it impossible to deny Allah, blessed and exalted is He.

And His saying, exalted is He: "Certainly" has been interpreted by a group of linguists to mean "there must be, and there is no doubt." Another group said its meaning is "it is true that Allah." And the view of Sibawayh is that "no" negates what has preceded in the speech, and "certainly" means: it is obligatory or true. This is similar to the view of Al-Zajjaj. However, with both of their views, "no" is associated with "certainly," and this does not separate from that. In "certainly," there are languages that have been mentioned previously in Surah Hud. Abu Ubaidah recited:

"Certainly, it has been established against them and it has made it obligatory that they become angry." And "that" according to the view of Sibawayh is the subject of "certainly." The majority read: "that" open, while Isa Al-Thaqafi read: "indeed" with a kasrah on the alif, as a cut. Yahya ibn Salam and Al-Naqash said: what is meant here by "what they conceal" is their consultation in the House of Al-Nadwah regarding the killing of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. And His saying, "Indeed, He does not love the arrogant" is general for both disbelievers and believers, each one of them will receive their due share. In the hadith: "No one will enter Paradise with an atom's weight of arrogance in their heart," and in it, "Indeed, arrogance prevents the truth and belittling of people." It is narrated from Al-Hasan ibn Ali that he used to sit with the poor and speak to them, then he would recite: "Indeed, He does not love the arrogant." It has been narrated in the hadith that "whoever prostrates to Allah with a prostration from the believers has been freed from arrogance."

'And His saying, the Most High: "And when it is said to them, 'What has your Lord sent down?" The pronoun in 'to them' refers to the disbelievers of Mecca. It is said that the reason for this verse was that Al-Nadr ibn Al-Harith traveled from Mecca to Al-Hirah and elsewhere. He came back to Mecca having taken the books of history, such as 'Kalila and Dimna' and the stories of Isfandiyar and Rustam. He would say: 'Indeed, Muhammad only narrates the legends of the ancients, and my narration is more beautiful than his.' And his saying, 'What' may be an interrogative, and 'that' means 'which.' In 'sent down,' there is a pronoun referring back. It is also possible that 'What' and 'that' are a single compound name, as if he said: 'What thing?' Their saying, 'Legends of the ancients' is not an answer to the first question, because they did not mean that something was sent down, nor that a revelation was completed. Rather, they began the report by saying that these are the legends of the ancients. The answer to the question is the saying of the believers in the upcoming verse: 'Good.' Their saying, 'Legends of the ancients' is merely an answer in meaning. As for the question and according to it, no. The 'lam' in His saying, 'to bear' may be understood as the lam of consequence, because they did not intend by their saying, 'Legends of the ancients' to bear burdens. It may be that it is an explicit lam of purpose, meaning: this is decreed. It may also be that it is the lam of command, meaning that it is obligatory upon them by that and the smallness that necessitates it. 'Burden' means weights, and His saying, 'and from' is for partitive meaning. This is because this misleading head bears the weight of his own self completely, and he bears a weight from the burdens of every misleader because of him, and the burdens of those do not decrease. His saying, 'without knowledge' may mean the misleader, that is, he misled without proof that was established for him. It may also mean: without knowledge from the followers who mislead them. Then Allah, the Most High, began to inform about the evil of what they bear for the Hereafter. Al-Tabari and others have narrated in the meaning of this verse a hadith whose text is: 'Any caller who calls to misguidance and is followed, then upon him is the like of the burdens of those who follow him without diminishing anything from their burdens. And any caller who calls to guidance and is followed, then for him is the like of their rewards without diminishing anything from their rewards.' And 'evil' is a verb attributed to 'what,' and there is no need for a connection here.