His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "They will not harm you except for a hurt, and if they fight you, they will turn their backs, then they will not be helped." "The humiliation has been struck upon them wherever they are found, except by a rope from Allah and a rope from the people. And they have returned with anger from Allah, and humiliation has been struck upon them. That is because they used to disbelieve in the signs of Allah and kill the prophets unjustly. That is because of what they disobeyed and they were transgressors."

And His saying, the Most High: "They will not harm you except for a hurt," means: they will not inflict upon you any harm in your bodies or in your wealth, but rather it is a hurt by their tongues. Thus, the exception is connected. Al-Hasan, Qatadah, and others said: "The hurt" refers to their distortion of the matter of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and their denial of him.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And their belittling of the believers and their attacking them collectively and individually is all great and troubling. Because of this, they deserve killing and exile, and the imposition of jizyah. But Allah, exalted is He, intended by this verse that the believers should regard them with a look of contempt so that they do not deter anyone from his religion or distract him from the worship of his Lord. And this is how the eloquence of the Arabs is, and from this meaning of belittlement is the saying of Thumamah ibn Uthal: "O Muhammad, if you kill me, you kill a man of blood, and if you show kindness, you show kindness to one who is grateful, and if you want wealth, ask from it what you wish." His saying: "a man of blood" has been narrated with the dhāl marked and with the dāl unmarked. So, "a man of blood" with the dhāl opened and with a kasrah means he intended by it the protection. As for the dāl unmarked, it is possible that he intended to magnify the matter of himself, and that is in one of two ways: either he means the warning, that is, if you kill a man of blood, he has protectors, so beware of the consequence of that, or he means to kill a king whose blood is sought for vengeance, as the Arabs used to believe regarding the blood of kings. So this is a plea, not a threat, meaning: it is not appropriate for you to ruin someone like me. And this is as the Ash'ath ibn Qays pleaded with Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, with this meaning. And the words of Thumamah may imply that he intended to belittle the matter of himself and to remove from the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, the joy of achieving such a great matter. And this runs parallel to the saying of Abu Jahl to Abdullah ibn Mas'ud: "Is there a more deliberate act than a man you have killed?" And similar is the saying of the captive to Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, when he said to him: "I will surely kill you," he replied: "That does not decrease the number of the Khazraj at all." So it is as if Thumamah intended: if you kill me, you kill a worthless animal, as every man of blood is killed. So why do you do that and neglect to show kindness to me? The verse looks at this meaning from the perspective that he belittled in the eyes of the believers what is great in itself, as a reminder to them.

And Allah, exalted is He, informed in His saying: "And if they fight you..." the verse, with news of the unseen that existence has confirmed. So it is from the signs of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and the benefit of the news is in His saying: "Then they will not be helped," meaning: their war with you will not be a back-and-forth, and He specified the backs in mention without the fronts to emphasize the one fleeing. And thus it is wherever they turn.

And His saying: "It was struck" means: it was firmly established with intensity and confirmed commitment. This describes a state that has been established upon the Jews in the corners of the earth before the advent of Islam. Al-Hasan said: Islam came while the Magians were collecting the jizyah from them, and they had no honor or protection except in Yathrib and Khaybar and that land. So Allah removed it with Islam, and they did not have any banner at all in the land. And "humiliation" is a noun derived from humiliation, and "they were taken" means: they were seized while in the state of a sinner deserving destruction. From this is His saying, the Exalted: "So if you encounter them in war" [Al-Anfal: 57]. "And kill them wherever you find them" [Al-Baqarah: 191]. The term is taken from 'thaqaf', and from this is the saying of the poet:

We call for Thaqif, and the iron has bitten it, the bite of 'thaqaf' upon the deaf pipes.

And His saying, the Exalted: "except by a rope" is an absolute exception. It is similar to His saying, the Exalted: "And it is not for a believer to kill a believer except by mistake" [An-Nisa: 92]. Because the initial opinion gives that it is permissible for him to kill by mistake, and that the rope from Allah and from the people removes the strike of humiliation. And the matter is not as such; rather, the speech is omitted, which the understanding of the listener comprehends when looking into the matter. Its estimation in our verses is: there is no salvation from death except by a rope. And His saying, the Exalted: "Humiliation was struck upon them wherever they were taken" is as if it means: they perished and were uprooted. Therefore, it is appropriate that it comes after it: "except by a rope." And the understanding of that is close to the listener. Al-Zajjaj said: The meaning is that humiliation was struck upon them except that they cling to the covenant when it is given to them. And the rope is the covenant, which is likened to it because it connects one people to another as the rope does in the bodies.

And "they returned" means: they went bearing this judgment, and Allah was angry with them for what these matters indicated that He inflicted upon them. And the actions of the Children of Israel throughout history of obstinacy and disobedience necessitate anger, and for this reason they were specifically mentioned, while the Christians have only gone astray. And "humility" means: subjugation and lowliness, and it is the state of one who is circling seeking a morsel or two, contrasting with the state of self-restraint and pride in it. So there is no one from the Jews, even if he is wealthy, except that he is in this state.

And His saying, the Exalted: "That" refers to the anger and the strike of humiliation and humility. So Allah punished them for their disbelief and for killing the prophets by that. And "the signs of Allah" it is possible that it refers to the recited ones, and it is possible that He means the lessons that were presented to them. And His saying: "without right" is an affirmation and exaggeration and a cutting off of what may be in the imagination of a person that is possible in any way.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿That is because they disobeyed﴾, the interpreters have taken the reference of "that" to be to the thing that was referred to by the first "that". This was said by al-Tabari and al-Zajjaj and others. What I say is that the reference of the last "that" is to their disbelief and their killing. This is because Allah, exalted is He, led them on and punished them for their disobedience and transgression by causing them to fall into disbelief and the killing of the prophets. This is what the people of knowledge say: that Allah, exalted is He, punishes for disobedience by causing one to fall into another disobedience, and rewards for obedience by granting success to further obedience. This is evident among people if one reflects. The disobedience of the Children of Israel and their transgressions on the Sabbath and otherwise are established in many places in the Book of Allah. And Qatadah, may Allah have mercy on him, said when he interpreted this verse: "Avoid disobedience and transgression, for by it those who were before you were destroyed."