His saying - glorified and exalted is He -: "And the Day We gather them all together, then We say to those who associated partners, 'Where are your partners that you used to claim?'" "Then their trial will not be but that they say, 'By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists.'" "Look how they lied against themselves, and what they used to invent has abandoned them." A group said: "The wrongdoers will not succeed" [Al-An'am: 21]; it is a complete statement; its meaning is: "They will not succeed altogether; then he began again and said: 'And remember the Day We gather them.'" And Al-Tabari said: The meaning is: "The wrongdoers will not succeed today in this world; and on the Day We gather them"; it is connected to the implied circumstance; and the speech is continuous. And a group read: "We gather them"; and "We say" with a ن (noon); and Hamid and Ya'qub read both with a ي (ya); and Asim read here and in "Yunus" before thirty: "We gather them"; and "We say"; with a ن (noon); and he read in the rest of the Qur'an with a ي (ya); and Abu Huraira read "We gather them" with a kasra on the ش (sheen); so the action comes - on this -: "He gathered; he gathers; and he gathers." And the partners were added to them because there is no partnership for them in reality between the idols and anything; rather, the name of partner has merely been applied to them by the mere naming of the disbelievers; so they were attributed to them for this reason. And "you claim"; its meaning is: you assert that they are [partners] for Allah, the Exalted; and the claim is: the saying that leans towards falsehood; and lies; in most of their speech; and it may be said: "He claimed"; meaning: "He mentioned"; without leaning towards lying; and on this basis, Sibawayh says: The friend claimed; but that is only used in something strange; which remains the trust of its speaker.

And His saying, the Exalted ﴿Then their trial was not except that they said﴾; the verse; Ibn Kathir read - in the narration of Shibl from him -; and Asim - in the narration of Hafs -; and Ibn Amir: "Their trial was not"; with the raising of "trial"; and "except that they said"; in the position of accusative as a report; the estimation is: "except their saying"; and this is correct; because he feminized the sign in the verb when he attributed it to a feminine; which is "trial"; and Nafi, and Abu Amr, and Asim - in the narration of Abu Bakr - may Allah be pleased with him -; and Ibn Kathir also read: "Their trial was"; with the accusative of "trial"; and the name of "was": "that they said"; and in this reading, there is a feminine form of "that they said"; and this is permissible because "trial" is feminine in meaning; Abu Ali said: And this is like His saying, the Exalted ﴿For him is ten like it﴾ [Al-An'am: 160]; for he feminized "like"; when the good deeds are in meaning; and Hamza and Al-Kisai read: "It is not"; with the ya; "their trial"; with the accusative; and the name of "was": ﴿except that they said﴾; and this is correct; because he masculinized the sign of the verb when he attributed it to a masculine; Al-Zahrawi said: And a group read: "Their trial is not"; with the raising of "trial"; and in this reading, there is the attribution of a masculine verb to a feminine; and this came in meaning; because "trial" (p-335) means test; or affection for something; and admiration; and Ubay ibn Ka'b, and Ibn Mas'ud, and Al-Amash read: "And their trial was not"; and Talha ibn Musarif read: "Then their trial was".

And "trial" in the speech of the Arabs is a shared term; it is said in the meaning of love for something and admiration for it; as you say: "I was enamored with such and such"; and the verse here can carry this meaning; that is: "Their love for the idols and their admiration for them, and their following of them when they were asked about them, and they stood at their impotence, was nothing but disavowal of them and denial of them"; and this is a reprimand for them; as you say to a man who claimed affection for another; then he turned away from him and opposed him: "O so-and-so, your affection for so-and-so was nothing but that you insulted him and opposed him"; and it is said: "The trial"; in the speech of the Arabs; in the meaning of test; as He - Exalted and Majestic - said to Musa - peace be upon him -: ﴿And We tested you with a test﴾ [Ta-Ha: 40]; and as His saying, the Exalted ﴿And We certainly tested Solomon and cast﴾ [Sad: 34]; and the verse here can carry this meaning; because their question about the partners; and their stopping is a test; so the meaning is: "Then our test for them - since it did not benefit nor bear fruit - was only their denial of polytheism".

And the term "trial" comes in the language with meanings other than these; which have no relevance to the verse; and whoever said: "The origin of trial is testing; from 'I tested gold in the fire'; then it is borrowed afterwards in other than that"; has erred; because the name cannot be judged by the meaning of borrowing until it is established that its reality is impossible in the place to which it was borrowed; as in the saying of Dhī al-Rummah:

................. ∗∗∗ And the dawn wrapped the Pleiades in its fullness

and the like; and "trial" cannot be impossible to be a reality in every place it is said about.

(p-336) And Nafi', Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, Asim, and Ibn Umar read: "By Allah, our Lord"; it was lowered due to the description of the name of Allah, glorified and exalted is He. And Hamzah and Al-Kisai read: "Our Lord"; it was raised due to the call; and it is permissible to interpret it as praise. And Ikrimah and Salam ibn Miskin read: "By Allah, our Lord"; with both names raised; and this is based on the interpretation of precedence and delay; as if they said: "We were not polytheists; and Allah is our Lord"; and "We were not polytheists" means the denial of their polytheism in this world. It has been narrated that when they saw the release of those in the Fire from the people of faith, they cried out; and they were stopped; and it was said to them: "Where are your partners?"; and they denied, out of their greed that they might be treated as the people of faith were treated. A man came to Ibn Abbas and said: I heard Allah, glorified and exalted is He, say: ﴿By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists﴾; and in another: ﴿And they do not conceal from Allah a saying﴾ [An-Nisa: 42]; Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "When they saw that no one would enter Paradise except a believer, they said: Come, let us deny; and they said: 'We were not polytheists'; so Allah, glorified and exalted is He, sealed their mouths; and their limbs spoke; so they do not conceal from Allah a saying."

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Some of the interpreters expressed the trial here by saying: "Their excuse"; this was said by Qatadah; and others said: "Their words"; this was said by Al-Dahhak; and other interpretations have been mentioned, all of which are included in what we have mentioned.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He, ﴿Look how they lied﴾; the address is to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him; and the sight is the sight of the heart; and He said: "They lied" regarding a matter that did not occur; as it is a narration of the Day of Resurrection; so there is no difficulty in using the past tense in a place of the future; and the use of the past tense confirms what is in the action and establishes it; and this is a method in the language; and among it is the saying of Al-Rabi' ibn Dabbah Al-Fazari: (p-337)

I have become one who does not carry arms nor *** I possess the head of the camel if it runs away.

He means: "If it runs away."

﴿ "And it has gone away from them";﴾ its meaning is: "Their fabrication in this world has gone away; and their lying by claiming partners for Allah, blessed and exalted is He."