His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And when they meet those who believe, they say, 'We have believed.' But when they are alone, some of them say to others, 'Do you inform them of what Allah has opened up to you so they can argue with you before your Lord? Do you not understand?'" "Or do they not know that Allah knows what they conceal and what they declare?" "And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except wishful thinking, and they only assume." The meaning is: they also, when they 'meet,' do this. So how can one hope for their faith? It is possible that this statement is a new sentence, disconnected from the meaning of hope, in it is the revelation of their secrets. It has been reported in the tafsir that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'No one should enter upon us in the city except a believer.' So Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf and Wahb ibn Yahuda, and their likes, said: 'Go and inquire about the news of those who have believed in Muhammad, and say to them, 'We have believed,' and disbelieve when you return.' Then this verse was revealed. Ibn Abbas said: It was revealed about hypocrites from the Jews. It has also been narrated from him that it was revealed about a group of Jews who said to some of the believers: 'We believe that he is a prophet, but he is not for us; rather, he is for you specifically.' So when they were alone, some of them said: 'Why do you acknowledge his prophethood when we used to seek victory through him before?' This is what Allah has opened up to them from His knowledge. The root of 'خلا' is 'خلو,' the 'waw' moved and what preceded it opened, so it turned into an 'alif.' Abu al-Aliya and Qatadah said: Some of the Jews spoke about what was in the Torah regarding the description of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. The disbelieving scholars said to them: 'Do you inform them of what Allah has opened up to you?' That is, what He has made known to you about the description of Muhammad so they can argue against you when you acknowledge him and do not believe in him? And al-Suddi said: Some of the Jews narrated to some Muslims what their ancestors were punished with. Some of the scholars said: 'Do you inform them of what Allah has opened up to you?' Regarding the punishment, so they can argue against you and say: 'We are more honored before Allah when He did not do to us like this?' And 'opened' - according to this interpretation - means: judged.

Mujahid said: "The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said to the Banu Qurayzah: O brothers of pigs and monkeys. The rabbis said to their followers: No one knows this except from you. Are you telling them?" Ibn Zayd said: When they were asked about something, they would say: In the Torah such and such, so the rabbis disliked that and forbade it in private, and this is what the verse was revealed about. The term 'fath' in the language is divided into categories that are gathered by the meaning of expansion and the removal of ambiguity. To this, the ruling and others return. The 'fathah' is the judge in the language of Yemen, and "yuhajjookum" is from 'hujjah' and its origin is from 'hajj' if he intends, because each of the disputants intends to overcome the other. And "‘inda rabbikum" means in the Hereafter, and it was said that 'inda' means: in your Lord, meaning they will be more deserving of it. It was said: the meaning is: at the mention of your Lord. And His saying, the Exalted, "Do you not understand?" It was said: this is from the words of the rabbis to their followers, and it was said: this is an address from Allah to the believers, meaning: Do you not understand that the Children of Israel do not believe while they are in these conditions? And understanding is necessary knowledge.

The majority read: "Do they not know" with a 'ya' from below, and Ibn Muhaisin read "Do you not know" with a 'ta' addressing the believers.

And that which they concealed: their disbelief, and that which they declared: their saying: We have believed, this is concerning all the Jews. And that which the rabbis concealed: the description of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and the knowledge of him, and that which they declared: the denial of him. And the wording of the verse encompasses all. And "ummiyyun" here refers to those who are ignorant of the Torah. Abu Al-Aliyah, Mujahid, and others said: the meaning is from among these mentioned Jews. The verse is a warning to their generality and their followers, meaning that they are among those who do not hope for their faith due to the delusion that has overwhelmed them. It was said: the intended meaning of 'ummiyyin' here is a people whose writers went due to sins they committed, so they remained ummiyyin. And Ikrimah and Al-Dahhak said: they are in the verse the Arab Christians. It was said, according to Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, that they are the Magians. The pronoun in "minhum" in these sayings refers to all disbelievers. And the saying of Abu Al-Aliyah and Mujahid is the most plausible of these sayings. And Abu Haywah and Ibn Abi Abilah read: "ummiyyun" with a lightening of the 'mim'. And an 'ummiyy' in the language is one who does not write or read in a book, attributed to the mother, either because he is in the state of his mother from the lack of writing, not from the state of his father, since women are not preoccupied with writing, as Al-Tabari said, or because he is in a state in which his mother gave birth to him, he did not transfer from her. It was said: attributed to the ummah, which is the essence and creation, as if he has nothing from the humans except that. It was said: attributed to the ummah in its simplicity before knowledge was recognized, for it does not read or write. And for this reason, the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said about the Arabs: "Indeed, we are an ummiyyah nation; we do not calculate or write," the hadith. And the 'alif' and 'lam' in "al-kitab" is for the covenant, and it means the Torah according to the saying of Abu Al-Aliyah and Mujahid.

And 'amanī is the plural of 'amnīyah. Abu Ja'far, Shaiba, and Nafi' read in some of what was narrated from him 'amanī' with the lightening of the yā. The root of 'amnīyah is 'amnūyah on the pattern of (p-263) (uf'ūlah), and this pattern is pluralized as (afā'il). Therefore, the yā must be lightened, and it is pluralized as (afā'il). Thus, 'amanīy comes, with the yā assimilated into the yā, resulting in 'amanīy. There is a difference in the meaning of 'amanīy. A group said: Here it is from the wishing of a man when he hopes, meaning that among them are those who do not write or read, but rather say based on their assumption something they heard, wishing that it is from the book. Others said: It is from wishing when he recites, and from it is His saying, the Most High: 'Except when he wishes, the devil casts into his wish' [Al-Hajj: 52]. And from it is the saying of the poet: 'He wished for the Book of Allah, its beginning and its end, he met the fate of the doomed.' The meaning of the verse is that they do not know the book except by hearing something recited, having no knowledge of its correctness. Al-Tabari said: It is from the wishing of a man when he speaks of a fabricated falsehood. The people of language mentioned that the Arabs say: 'A man wished' when he lied and fabricated the story. From it is the saying of Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him: 'I have not wished nor sung since I embraced Islam.' The meaning of the verse is that among them are illiterates who do not know the book except that they hear from the scholars fabricated things that they assume are from the book. And 'in' is a negation meaning 'not,' and the assumption here is in its usual sense of leaning towards one of the two possibilities.