The saying of the Exalted and Majestic:

﴿When they came to you from above you and from below you, and when the eyes shifted and the hearts reached the throats, and you think about Allah thoughts﴾ ﴿There the believers were tested and shaken with a severe shaking﴾ ﴿And when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease said, "Allah and His Messenger did not promise us except delusion"﴾

"When" is a substitute for the first in His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿When they came to you﴾ [Al-Ahzab: 9]. And His saying: ﴿from above you﴾ means the people of Najd with 'Uyaynah bin Hisn. ﴿And from below you﴾ means Mecca and the rest of Tihamah, as said by Mujahid. It is said: ﴿from above you﴾ means from the upper part of the valley from the direction of the overlook of Ghatafan, and ﴿and from below you﴾ means from the lower part of the valley towards the west. It is also said that it refers specifically to the area of Medina, meaning that a group descended in the upper part of Medina, and a group in its lower part. This is an expression of restriction.

And ﴿the eyes shifted﴾ means they deviated from their places. This is the action of one who is terrified and panicked. Al-Amash merged "when the eyes shifted," while the majority clarified the dhāl, and both are good.

﴿And the hearts reached the throats﴾ is an expression of what the panic causes from the turmoil of the soul and its scattering. It feels as if its insides and heart are rising to separate. Thus, the reaching of the hearts to the throats is not literally by the movement, but it indicates that, and the reaching of the throats is borrowed for it. Abu Sa'id narrated that "the believers said on the day of the trench: O Messenger of Allah, the hearts have reached the throats, is there anything we should say? He said: Yes, say: "O Allah, cover our nakedness and grant us safety from our fears." So they said it, and Allah struck the faces of the disbelievers with the wind and defeated them."

And His saying, Exalted is He: ﴿And you think about Allah thoughts﴾ means you are about to be shaken and say: What is this contradiction to the promise? This is an expression of thoughts for the believers that humans cannot repel. As for the hypocrites, they were bold and spoke. Nafi', Abu 'Amr, 'Asim, Abu Ja'far, Shaiba, Al-Amash, and Talha read "thoughts" with an alif in both connection and pause, and that is following the script of the mushaf. The reason for this is the adjustment of the heads of the verses, and the negation of this reason is to adhere to the pause. It has been narrated from Abu 'Amr that he used to not connect, so he did not agree with the script of the mushaf and the measure of the pauses. Abu 'Amr also read, and Hamzah in connection and pause: "thoughts" without an alif, and this is the original. Ibn Kathir, Al-Kisai, 'Asim, and Abu 'Amr read with the alif in the pause and without it in the connection, and they justified the pause by the equality of the heads of the verses and by what the Arabs do in rhymes of addition and omission.

And His saying, exalted is He: "There" is a time indicator, and the operative word in it is "was tested." Whoever says that the operative word in it is "and you think" is not strong in his saying; because the beginning is not firmly established. And "was tested" means: was examined and the patient among them was distinguished from the one who is impatient. And "were shaken" means: were violently moved. The majority read: "a shaking" with a kasrah on the zay, and it was read as "a shaking" with a fathah by al-Jahdari, and likewise "its shaking" in "When the earth is shaken" [Al-Zalzalah: 1].

Then He mentioned, exalted is He, the saying of the hypocrites and those with diseased hearts, and He alerted them in a manner of blame against them. It was narrated from Yazid ibn Ruman that Mu'attab ibn Qushayr said: "Muhammad promises us that we will conquer the treasures of Kisra and Caesar and Mecca, and now none of us is able to go to the bathroom. He promises us nothing but deception, meaning something that deceives us and leads us into what we have no power over." Others among the hypocrites said similar things, so the verse was revealed about them. And their saying: "What Allah and His Messenger promised us" is merely in the context of mockery, as if they are saying: "According to the claim of this one who claims to be a Messenger." This indicates that it is impossible for them to believe that this promise is from Allah and from His Messenger, and then they describe it as deception. Rather, its meaning is: according to the claim of this.