His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "Did you not see those who were given a share of the Scripture? They are invited to the Book of Allah to judge between them, then a party of them turns away while they are refusing." "That is because they said, 'The Fire will not touch us except for a few days.' And they were deluded in their religion by what they used to invent." "So how [will it be] when disaster strikes them because of what their hands have earned, and then they come to you swearing by Allah, 'We intended nothing but good conduct and accommodation.'" Ibn Abbas said: This verse was revealed because "the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, entered the school of the Jews and called them to Allah. Nu'aym ibn Amr and Al-Harith ibn Zayd said to him: 'What religion are you upon, O Muhammad?' The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'I am upon the religion of Ibrahim.' They said: 'But Ibrahim was a Jew.' The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to them: 'Then come to the Torah, for it is between us and you.' But they refused him, so it was revealed." Al-Naqqash mentioned: "It was revealed because a group of the Jews denied the prophethood of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to them: 'Come to the Torah, for it contains my description.' But they refused." The term 'the Book' in His saying: "a share of the Book" is a generic name, and the Book in His saying: "to the Book of Allah" refers to the Torah. Qatadah and Ibn Jurayj said: The Book in His saying: "to the Book of Allah" is the Qur'an. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, was calling them to it, but they turned away. Al-Tabari preferred the first opinion, and Al-Makki said: The first Book is the Preserved Tablet, and the second is the Torah. The majority of the people read: "to judge" with a فتح (fatha) on the ياء (ya), meaning the Book will judge. Al-Hasan, Abu Ja'far, and Asim al-Jahdari read: "to be judged" with a ضم (dhamma) on the ياء (ya) and making the verb passive. Allah, exalted and glorified is He, specified a party to turn away, not all of them, because among them were those who did not turn away, like Ibn Salam and others. His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "That is because they..." refers to their turning away and refusal, meaning they only turned away and refused due to their delusion by these sayings and the fabrications they had in their saying: "We are the sons of Allah and His beloved." This is similar to other meanings. It was said by the Children of Israel that the Fire would not touch them except for forty days, the number of days they worshipped the calf, as reported by Al-Rabi' and Qatadah. Al-Tabari narrated that they said: Allah promised their father Ya'qub that no one from his children would enter the Fire except for the fulfillment of the oath. In the hadith, "The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said to the Jews: 'Who will be the first to enter the Fire?' They said: 'We will, for a short time, then you will follow us in it.' He said: 'You have lied...'" The hadith is lengthy. And "they invent" means they distort and fabricate stories in praise of their religion and themselves, claiming virtues for them.

Then Allah, the Most High, said, addressing Muhammad and his Ummah in a manner of stopping and amazement: So how will be the state of those who are deceived by falsehood when they are gathered on the Day of Resurrection, and those adornments they claimed in this world have vanished, and they are judged by what they earned from their disbelief and their vile deeds? Al-Naqqash said: And the Day means the time. Likewise, His saying: 'in six days' [Al-A'raf: 54] and 'in two days' [Fussilat: 9] and 'four days' [Fussilat: 10] are merely expressions of times, for the days and nights are with us. The correct understanding of the Day of Resurrection is that it is a day because before it is a night and it has a sun. The 'lam' in His saying, the Most High, 'for a day' indicates a demand for something omitted. Al-Tabari said: Its estimation is: for what will happen on a day.