And do not turn away. It was read by dropping one of the two تاءs and merging it. The pronoun in عَنْهُ refers to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, because the meaning is: And obey the Messenger of Allah, as in His saying: Allah and His Messenger have more right to please Him. This is because the obedience to the Messenger and the obedience to Allah are one thing. Whoever obeys the Messenger has certainly obeyed Allah. So, the return of the pronoun to one of them is like its return to both, as in your saying: Kindness and generosity do not benefit in the case of so-and-so. It is also possible that it refers to the command of obedience, meaning: And do not turn away from this command and its implementation while you are hearing it. Or do not turn away from the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and do not oppose him while you are hearing, meaning you believe, because you are believers, not like the deaf deniers among the disbelievers. And do not be like those who said: We have heard, meaning they claimed to hear while they do not hear, because they are not believers, so they are as if they are not hearing. The meaning is that you believe in the Qur'an and the Prophethood. If you turn away from obeying the Messenger in some matters, such as the distribution of spoils and others, your belief is not complete, and your hearing resembles the hearing of one who does not believe. Then He said: Indeed, the worst of creatures, meaning the worst of those who tread upon the earth. Or the worst of the beasts who are deaf to the truth and do not comprehend it. He made them of the kind of beasts, then made them the worst of them. If Allah had known in these deaf and dumb ones any good, meaning benefit from kindness, He would have made them hear for their kindness. [Mahamud said: This means: If Allah knew that kindness would benefit these... etc. Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The statement that Allah, the Exalted, is kind to the servant does not imply that His kindness is ineffective. Kindness is the act of doing good and being gracious to him, and His name is 'the Kind' from that. If He does good to the servant by making him hear in a kind manner, that is the desired goal. The meaning of kindness to him in this sense is to create in his heart the acceptance of the truth, the good listening to it, and the guidance by it. However, this cannot be realized based on the doctrine of isolation and the corrupt opinion regarding the creation of actions, because its implication is that the servant creates for himself the acceptance of the truth, guidance, and good listening, and that Allah does not share the servant in creating that. Rather, what is attributed to Allah, the Exalted, is the will for guidance from all creation, and it is not necessary that His will is realized in general. Exalted is Allah above what they say. Then, even if a revelation were to descend based on this principle, the interpretation of Zamakhshari would not be correct either, as its essence is: If Allah knew any good in them, He would have been kind to them, and if He had been kind to them, they would not have benefited from the kindness. This implies that they would not benefit from kindness if Allah knew good in them, and this is not correct due to the necessity of contradicting what is known to Allah, which is impossible rationally. Thus, the issue cannot be resolved except by assuming the hearing that occurs as a response first and the contradiction of the hearing that occurs as a second condition, so that the middle does not repeat and lead to the mentioned impossibility. The closest explanation for the difference in the hearings is that the first is meant: If Allah had known any good in them, He would have made them hear a hearing that creates for them guidance and acceptance. And if He had made them hear, it would not be on the basis that He creates for them guidance, but rather a hearing that is devoid of that, for they would turn away while they are averse. This is the explanation of the verse, and Allah is the Grantor of success.] Until they hear the hearing of the believers. Then He said: And if He had made them hear, they would have turned away from Him. This means: If He had been kind to them, kindness would not have benefited them, so He withheld His kindness from them. Or if He had been kind to them and they believed, they would have turned back after that and denied and would not have remained steadfast. It is said: They are the sons of Abd al-Dar ibn Qusay, of whom only two men embraced Islam: Musab ibn Umair and Suwayd ibn Harmalah. They used to say: We are deaf, dumb, and blind to what Muhammad has brought; we do not hear him nor respond to him. They were all killed at Uhud, and they were the bearers of the banner. And from Ibn Jurayj: They are the hypocrites. And from al-Hasan: They are the People of the Book.