His saying, exalted is He:

﴿You will find others who wish to be secure with you and secure with their people. Whenever they are returned to temptation, they are thrown back into it. So if they do not withdraw from you and offer you peace and restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them. And those are the ones We have made for you a clear authority over them.﴾

When Allah, exalted is He, described in what has preceded the attribute of the rightful ones in abstaining, the diligent ones in offering peace, He alerted to a deceitful and false group who wanted to remain in their places with their families. They would say to them: 'We are with you and on your religion.' They would also say to the Muslims when they came and were sent: 'We are with you and on your religion,' as a form of treachery and deceit from them. It was said that they were the Asad and Ghatafan with this attribute. It was also said that it was revealed about Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ashja'i, who would carry news between the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and the disbelievers. It was also said that it was revealed about a group that would come from Mecca to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, in pretense, showing Islam, then returning to Quraysh to disbelieve. So Allah, exalted is He, exposed these people and made it known that they were not like the previous ones.

And His saying: 'to temptation' means: to the test. It has been reported that they would return to their people and one of them would say: 'My lord is the toad, and my lord is the stick, and my lord is the scorpion,' and the like, and he would say it. And the meaning of 'they are thrown back' is that they returned in a state of misguidance, meaning: they were destroyed in the choice they made by what they encountered of disbelief. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud read: 'they are thrown back' with a damm of the ra without an alif, and Abu al-Fath reported it from him with a shaddah on the kaf for emphasis. And the disagreement regarding 'peace' is as has been mentioned before. This verse is an encouragement to kill these deceivers if they do not return from their state to that of the others who have withdrawn and offered peace.

Qadi Abu Muhammad Abdul Haqq, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And contemplate the eloquence of the words in that their context in the previous phrasing before this is a context of obligating withdrawal, and obligating the offering of peace, and negating fighting if they were rightful in that which they believed. And its context in this later phrasing is a context of negating withdrawal, and negating the offering of peace if they were false in it and deceiving. And the ruling is the same in both contexts, because those whom Allah has not made a way over them, if they did not withdraw, their ruling would be the ruling of those upon whom a clear authority has been established. And likewise, those upon whom the authority is established, if they did not withdraw, if they had withdrawn, their ruling would be the ruling of those upon whom there is no way. But they, by this expression, are under the sword if they do not withdraw.

And 'wherever you find them' is derived from thaqaf, meaning: you have caught them defeated and firmly in your grasp. And the authority is the proof. It was said by Ikrimah: Wherever the authority occurs in the Book of Allah, exalted is He, it is the proof.