'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' This is a Medinan surah, consisting of eleven verses [revealed after the pilgrimage]. They intended by their saying, 'We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah,' a testimony that their hearts agreed with their tongues. [Mamdood said: 'They only lied because they claimed that their testimony with their tongues coincided with their hearts... etc.'] Ahmad said: 'An example of this is the beautiful saying: 'The Bedouins say,

Not everything that is called an oath or a vow necessitates a ruling. Do you not see that if he says: "I swear" and does not say "by Allah" or anything else, it is among the matters of disagreement regarding the obligation of expiation for it, even though it is an oath linguistically by consensus, because it is an action derived from it. It may also describe the hypocrites in their deception with oaths. Al-Hasan al-Basri read: their faith, meaning: what they have shown of faith with their tongues. This is supported by His saying, "That is because they believed, then disbelieved. Evil is what they were doing" from their hypocrisy and their turning people away from the path of Allah. In "Evil is what they were doing" there is a meaning of astonishment, which is to magnify their matter in the ears of the listeners. "That" refers to the saying "Evil is what they were doing," meaning that saying is a testimony against them that they are the worst of people in deeds because they believed, then disbelieved, or to what has been described of their state in hypocrisy, lying, and deception with oaths, meaning: all of that is because they believed, then disbelieved, so their hearts were sealed, and they became bold in every enormity. If you say: The hypocrites were only upon persistent, established disbelief, [Mahamud said: "The hypocrites were only upon persistent, established disbelief..." etc. Ahmad said: A fourth possibility is that they believed in him before his prophethood in the description mentioned in the Torah, because they used to hear it from their Jewish neighbors, then they disbelieved in him after his prophethood and the description matched. And perhaps among the hypocrites are Jews, and if not, then faith before his prophethood was from both groups: the Jews and the idol worshippers among the Arabs, until the revelation of His saying: "Those who disbelieved among the People of the Book and the polytheists were not to be separated until the clear proof came to them." How Allah has narrated about the two groups what they used to say. And the clear proof is the Prophet ﷺ.] So what is the meaning of His saying: "They believed, then disbelieved?" I say: There are three interpretations. The first is: They believed, meaning: they uttered the word of testimony and acted as those who enter into Islam do, then they disbelieved: then their disbelief became apparent after that, as evidenced by what they revealed in their saying: "If what Muhammad says is true, then we are donkeys," and their saying in the Battle of Tabuk: "Does this man hope that the palaces of Kisra and Caesar will be opened for him? Impossible." And similar to His saying: "They swear by Allah that they did not say it, and they certainly said the word of disbelief and disbelieved after their Islam," meaning: their disbelief became apparent after they had embraced Islam. Similar to His saying: "Do not excuse yourselves; you have disbelieved after your faith." The second interpretation is: They believed, meaning: they professed faith in front of the believers, then they professed disbelief in front of their devils in mockery of Islam, as His saying: "And when they meet those who believe... to His saying: "Indeed, we are only mockers." The third interpretation is that it refers to the people of apostasy among them. And it was read: "So their hearts were sealed." Zayd ibn Ali read: "So Allah sealed."