So if they are patient, their patience will not benefit them, nor will it free them from dwelling in the Fire. And if they seek to be excused, asking for a return to what they love, out of distress from what they are in: they will not be excused; they will not be given the return, nor will they be answered to it. And similar to His saying, exalted and sublime is He: "Are we to be distressed or patient? We have no escape." It has also been recited: "And if they seek to be excused, they are not among those who are excused," meaning: if they are asked to please their Lord, what will they do? There is no way for them to do that. And We have appointed for them, and decreed for them, referring to the polytheists of Mecca: it is said: These are two garments that are equal when they are of the same kind.

And the exchange is the compensation. "Companions, friends" [UNTRANSLATED-LATIN: aqdana] from the devils, the plural of companion, as His saying, exalted and sublime is He: "And whoever turns away from the remembrance of the Most Merciful, We appoint for him a devil, and he is his companion." If you say: How is it permissible for them to be assigned companions from the devils while He forbids them from following their footsteps? I say: Its meaning is that He abandoned them and prevented them from guidance due to their determination on disbelief, so they have no companions except the devils. The evidence for this is His saying: "And whoever turns away from the remembrance..." The opposite of what is before them and what is behind them: what they have done in the past and what they are determined upon. Or what is before them of worldly matters and following desires, and what is behind them: of the outcome, and that there is no resurrection or reckoning. And the word has become due upon them, meaning the word of punishment, among nations, in the group of nations. And similar to this is what is in the saying:

If you are turned away from the best of deeds, then you are among others who have been turned away.

This is from 'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, saying: If you are turned away, meaning: diverted and turned away from the best of giving, then there is no wonder, for you are among other people who have been turned away from goodness. And from it: the overturned cities, which are the cities turned upside down upon the people of Lot. And the Arabs say: When the overturned cities increase, the land flourishes, meaning: the differing winds.

He means: So you are among others, and you are counted among others; you are not unique in that. If you say: What is the position of "among nations"? I say: Its position is the accusative case as a state for the pronoun in "upon them is the word" being among nations. Indeed, they were losers, which explains their deserving of punishment. The pronoun refers to them and to the nations.