It is not for the polytheists to have what is right for them and what is upright to inhabit the mosques of Allah, meaning the Sacred Mosque, due to His saying: 'And the inhabitation of the Sacred Mosque.' As for the reading in the plural, there are two views. One is that it refers to the Sacred Mosque, and it was said 'mosques' because it is the qibla of all mosques and their imam. Thus, one who inhabits it is like one who inhabits all the mosques, and every spot of it is a mosque. The second is that it refers to the genus of mosques. If they are not fit to inhabit its genus, it falls under that they should not inhabit the Sacred Mosque, which is the head and foremost of the genus and is more emphasized. This is because its method is that of a metaphor, just as if I said: 'So-and-so does not read the Books of Allah,' I would be negating his reading of the Qur'an by your explicit statement of that. And 'witnessing' is a state of the conjunction in 'they inhabit,' and the meaning is: it is not upright for them to combine between two contradictory matters: the inhabitation of the places of worship of Allah, along with disbelief in Allah and in His worship. And the meaning of their witnessing against themselves with disbelief is the manifestation of their disbelief and that they set up their idols around the House, and they would circumambulate naked, saying: 'We do not circumambulate it in clothes in which we have committed sins.' And whenever they circumambulated it, they prostrated to it. It was said: it is their saying: 'Here I am, O Allah, You have no partner except a partner who belongs to You, whom You own and what He owns.' And it was said: the emigrants and the helpers approached the captives of Badr and reproached them for polytheism. Then Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, began to rebuke Abbas for fighting the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and for severing the ties of kinship, and he spoke harshly to him. Abbas said: 'You remember our faults and conceal our virtues.' He said: 'Do you have virtues?' They said: 'Yes, and we are better than you in reward: we indeed inhabit the Sacred Mosque, and we protect the Kaaba, and we give water to the pilgrims, and we free the captives.' Then the verse was revealed: 'Their deeds have become void,' which are the inhabitation, protection, providing water, and freeing the captives. And if disbelief or major sins destroy the established and correct deeds if they follow them, what do you think of those who are concurrent? And to that, he referred in his saying 'witnessing,' where he made it a state of them and indicated that they were concurrent between inhabitation and witnessing with disbelief against themselves in one state, and that is impossible and not upright.