If you say: What is the meaning of His saying, "And We made them leaders who invite to the Fire?" I say: Its meaning is: We made them leaders who invite to the Fire. The saying "We made them leaders who invite to the Fire" and what follows in the saying: "And it is permissible that We forsook them..." is based on the belief that it is obligatory for Him, the Exalted, to create goodness and it is not permissible for Him to create evil. This is the view of the Mu'tazilah. As for the view of the Ahl al-Sunnah, it is that nothing is obligatory upon Him, and it is permissible for Him to create evil just as He creates good. This has been established in the doctrine of monotheism, so there is no need to interpret the verse with such a complication. And we said: They are leaders who invite to the Fire, just as the rightful caliphs are leaders who invite to Paradise. It is from the saying: He made him stingy and wicked, if he called him and said: He is stingy and wicked. Mahmoud said: "Its meaning is: We made them leaders who invite to the Fire, just as you say: I made him stingy and wicked if I called him that." Ahmad said: There is no difference for the Ahl al-Sunnah between His saying, "And He made the darkness and the light," and "And We made the night and the day as two signs," and this verse. Whoever takes the making in our context to mean naming in order to avoid believing that their invitation to the Fire is created by Allah, it is like someone who takes it to mean naming in His saying, "And We made the night and the day as two signs," in order to avoid believing that the night and the day are created by Allah. There is no difference between denying one created thing from His power and denying every created thing. We seek refuge with Allah from that. The people of language say in interpreting his wickedness and stinginess: He made him stingy and wicked. From it is His saying, "And they made the angels who are the servants of the Most Merciful female." The meaning of their invitation to the Fire is their invitation to the causes of it from disbelief and sins. And on the Day of Resurrection, they will not be supported, just as the leaders who invite to Paradise are supported. It is permissible: We forsook them until they became leaders of disbelief. The meaning of forsaking is: preventing the graces, and it is only prevented from one who knows that they will not benefit him, which is the one who is determined upon disbelief, for whom the signs and warnings do not avail. Its meaning is metaphorical, for the prevention of graces accompanies determination, and the purpose of mentioning it is determination itself. It is as if it is said: They determined upon disbelief until they became leaders in it, inviting to it and to its evil consequence. If you say: What is the benefit of leaving the accompanied to the accompanying? I say: Mentioning the accompanying indicates the existence of the accompanied, so the existence of the accompanied is known with the witnessing evidence of its existence, making it stronger for its affirmation than merely mentioning it. Do you not see that you say: If he were not determined upon disbelief, his matter cut off, and his judgment established, I would not have prevented him from the graces? Thus, by mentioning the prevention of the graces, knowledge of the existence of determination upon disbelief is obtained, and an increase, which is the establishment of the proof of its existence. This interpretation is supported by His saying, "And on the Day of Resurrection, they will not be supported," as if it is said: And We forsook them in this world, and they are on the Day of Resurrection forsaken, just as He said, "And We followed them in this world with a curse," meaning expulsion and distancing from mercy, "And on the Day of Resurrection, they are among the despised," meaning among those who are expelled and distanced.