His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "They do not fight you all except in fortified towns or from behind walls. Their fighting among themselves is severe. You think they are all together, but their hearts are diverse. That is because they are a people who do not understand." "Like the example of those before them, shortly they tasted the evil consequence of their affair, and they have a painful punishment." "Like the example of Satan when he said to man, 'Disbelieve.' But when he disbelieved, he said, 'Indeed, I am disassociated from you. Indeed, I fear Allah, the Lord of the worlds.'" "So their consequence was that they were in the Fire, abiding therein. And that is the reward of the wrongdoers." (p-271) The pronoun in His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "They do not fight you" refers to Banu al-Nadir and all the Jews. This is the saying of a group of the interpreters. It is possible that He means by that the Jews and the hypocrites; because the inclusion of the hypocrites in His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Their fighting among themselves is severe. You think they are all together, but their hearts are diverse" is clear and evident. The meaning of the verse is: They do not fight you in an army by examination, and "the towns" refers to cities. Al-Farra' said: This is an irregular plural. Al-Zajjaj said: What is in the Qur'an is not irregular, and it is like: "a village" and "villages." Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, and many of the Meccans read: "jiddan" meaning the type. Many of the Meccans and Harun from Ibn Kathir read: "jud" with the opening of the jīm and the silence of the dāl, and its meaning is: the foundation of a building like a wall and the like. The rest of the reciters read: "judūr" with the jīm and dāl pronounced, which is the plural of jidar. Abu Rajaa and Abu Haywah read: "judr" with the jīm pronounced and the dāl silent, which is a lightening in the plural of jidar, and it is possible that it is from the trunks of palm trees, meaning: from behind their palms as they are what is taken as a shield during confrontation. And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Their fighting among themselves is severe" means: in their treachery and among their loved ones. And in the reading of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him: "You think they are all together, but their hearts are diverse." This is the state of the cowardly groups, which are always defeated in everything they attempt, and the term is derived from "shatat" which means dispersion and the like.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿The example of those before them﴾ means: Their example is like the example of those before them. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: They are the Banu Qaynuqa; because the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, expelled them from Medina before the Banu Nadir, and they were an example for them. Qatadah and Mujahid said: Those before them are the disbelievers of Badr; for they were before them and are an example for them in that they overcame and prevailed. Some of the interpreters said: The pronoun in His saying, exalted is He: ﴿The example of those before them﴾ refers to the hypocrites, and they are the hypocrites of the previous nations; because they were defeated and humiliation befell them throughout time, so they are an example for these. However, His saying, exalted is He: "Soon" may refer to the time of Moses, peace be upon him, or else the mentioned interpretation weakens, unless one makes "soon" a term for tasting, so the meaning would be: They tasted the consequence of their deeds soon after their disobedience and their innovations. It does not mean that the example is close in time to the one being exemplified. In any case, "soon" is a term or an adjective for a term. And "the consequence" refers to severity, unpleasantness, and the outcome of evil, and "the painful punishment" is in the Hereafter.

And His saying, exalted is He: "The example of Satan" means: The example of these two groups of hypocrites and the Banu Nadir is like the example of Satan and man. The hypocrites are like Satan, and the Banu Nadir are like man. Mujahid and a majority of the interpreters went to the view that Satan and man in this verse are generic names; because it is customary for these devils to work with people, just as Satan misleads man and then flees from him after he has entangled him. Likewise, the hypocrites misled the Banu Nadir and incited them to stand firm and promised them victory. But when the Banu Nadir betrayed and revealed their faces, the hypocrites left them in the worst condition. Some narrators of stories said that this refers to a specific Satan, and Al-Zajjaj mentioned that his name was Barṣīs. They said: He entrusted a woman, and it was said: She was brought to him to be healed by his supplication from madness. Then Satan tempted him to fall upon her, and she became pregnant. He feared the disgrace, so Satan tempted him to kill her and bury her, and he did so. Then he revealed it, and when the woman was found dead, they knew his lie. Then Satan approached him and said to him: Disbelieve and prostrate to me, and I will save you. So he did, and left him at that point and said: Indeed, I am free from you. All of this narration is weak, and the first interpretation is the correct meaning of the words. And the saying of Satan: "Indeed, I fear Allah" is hypocrisy and showing off, and that is not his true belief. He does not know Allah, exalted is He, as He should be known, nor does his fear prevent him from the evil that he causes to the son of Adam from the beginning to the end.

His saying, exalted is He: "So their consequence was..." The pronoun may return to the specified individuals mentioned, and it may return to the names of the two kinds, meaning: this is the consequence of every devil and human whose affair is thus. Al-Hasan and Amr ibn Ubayd read "their consequence" in the nominative, while the majority read "their consequence" in the accusative. The position of "that" contradicts the grammatical case of "the consequence" in the two readings. Ibn Mas'ud and Al-Amash read "eternal" in the nominative as it is the news of "that," and the adverbial phrase is disregarded. This reading is subject to the objection of disregarding the adverbial phrase twice, as mentioned by Al-Farra. This is permissible according to Sibawayh for emphasis.