Those who believed in Allah and disbelieved in His messengers, or believed in Allah and in some of His messengers and disbelieved in some, are all disbelievers in Allah and His messengers. This is due to what we mentioned. He means by saying 'due to what we mentioned' in the interpretation of the saying of Allah, the Most High: "O you who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger..." The meaning of taking a path between that is that they take a middle religion between belief and disbelief, as in His saying: "And do not raise your voice in your prayer nor be silent therein, but seek between that a way." This means a middle way in recitation, which is what is between raising the voice and being silent. They have erred, for there is no intermediary between disbelief and belief. This is according to the people of the Sunnah. As for the Mu'tazilah, the perpetrator of a major sin who dies without repentance is neither a believer nor a disbeliever, but is in a state between the two states. So reflect on this. Therefore, it is said: "Those are the disbelievers truly," meaning they are complete in disbelief. The word "truly" is an affirmation of the content of the sentence, like saying: "He is truly a servant of Allah," meaning that it is truly the case, and it is their being complete in disbelief, or it is a description of the source of the disbelievers, meaning they are those who have disbelieved with a disbelief that is truly established with certainty, without doubt.