They are presented before their Lord, held back in the standing place, and their deeds are displayed. The witnesses from the angels and the prophets testify against them that they are liars about Allah, claiming that He has taken a son and a partner. It is said, 'Indeed, the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers.' Woe to their disgrace and woe to their shame. The witnesses: it is the plural of witness or martyr, like companions or nobles. They seek to twist it, describing it as crooked while it is straight. Or they seek for its people to deviate by apostasy. They are the second group to emphasize their disbelief in the Hereafter and their exclusivity. Those are the ones who were not able to frustrate Allah on earth, meaning they could not make Allah unable to punish them in this world if He wanted to punish them. And they had no one to protect them from Him or prevent them from His punishment. However, He intended to give them respite and delay their punishment until this day. This is from the words of the witnesses: 'The punishment will be doubled for them.' It has been recited: 'It will be weakened.' What they were able to hear means that they, due to their excessive deafness to listening to the truth and their hatred for it, are as if they cannot hear. [Mawlid said: 'He meant that they, due to their excessive deafness to listening to the truth and their hatred for it, are as if they...'] Ahmad said: 'The people of truth, even if they deny the effect of the ability of the servant and affirm creation by the power of the Creator, glorified and exalted is He, do not deny the ability of the servant itself nor what he finds within himself in the difference between forced and voluntary actions. Rather, those who deny ability altogether are the true compellers, not the people of the Sunnah. The truth is with Al-Zamakhshari in this regard except in his negligence where he says: 'He will howl it to the people of justice,' meaning the mentioned verse. This is a great error. Even if the compeller was mistaken in using the verse to support his belief, how can he allow himself to label the citation of the verse as howling? He only recited the Book of Allah, the Exalted, and his error is in validating his false belief through it. Al-Zamakhshari is indeed very lenient regarding what is required of etiquette for the Noble Book, and leniency is only appropriate if he is interpreting the poetry of Imru' al-Qais or Al-Harith ibn Hilliza. As for the etiquette of the Qur'an, it is too narrow for anything easier than that. And Allah is the Granter of success.] And perhaps some of the compellers [The phrase 'And perhaps some of the compellers' if he meant by them the people of the Sunnah as is his habit, they do not deny the servant's ability in action, but affirm for him acquisition and ability along with action. If he meant those who advocate pure compulsion and that the servant is like a feather hanging in the air, then there is no harm. Al-Khazin reported from Ibn Abbas regarding this verse that he said: 'Allah, the Exalted, informed that He prevented the people of polytheism from His obedience in this world and the Hereafter. As for in this world, He said: 'They were not able to hear,' which is His obedience. And they were not able to see. And as for in the Hereafter, He said: 'They will not be able to see with humbled eyes.'] He will leap if he stumbles upon it and howl [The phrase 'and howl' in Al-Sahih: the howl is the sound of a wolf.] at the people of justice, as if he has not heard people say in every tongue: 'This is a saying I cannot hear,' and 'This is something my hearing rejects.' It is possible that he means by his words 'And they had no protectors' that they made their gods protectors besides Allah, and their guardianship is nothing. They truly had no protectors. Then he clarified the negation of their being protectors by saying: 'They were not able to hear and they were not able to see,' so how can they be fit for guardianship? And his saying: 'The punishment will be doubled for them' is an interruption with a warning. They have lost themselves. They exchanged the worship of the gods for the worship of Allah, so their loss in their trade was not a greater loss than this, which is that they lost themselves. And it was taken away from them and what they purchased was nullified, which was what they were fabricating from the gods and their intercession. No doubt, it is explained in another place: 'They are the most lost.' You will not see anyone clearer in loss than them.