“So leave them in their ignorance...”

This is an address to the Prophet, may Allah exalt him and grant him peace, concerning the Quraish who fragmented themselves regarding the true religion. Al-Ghamrah (ignorance/oblivion) refers to water that covers one’s stature; its root meaning is that of covering/concealing. It is intended here to mean ignorance, based on the commonality of being overcome and consumed by it.

It is as if, when the Exalted mentioned, among the stories of the nations of the Prophets (peace be upon them), how they distributed and divided that which ought to have been united and agreed upon regarding the religion, and their joy in their falsehood and their futile beliefs, He said to His Prophet (may Allah exalt him and grant him peace): "Since that is the case, leave them in this ignorance of theirs," as an act of abandoning them and withdrawing support, and as an indication of the despair that any words might benefit them. Within the mention of the final limit—namely His words, "until a time"—there is comfort.

For the intent behind this is the time of their slaughter, which was the day of Badr, according to what has been narrated from Muqatil; or it refers to their death in a state of disbelief, which necessitates punishment; or it refers to their actual punishment. There is, in the use of the indefinite and the ambiguity, a sense of terror that is not hidden.

It is permissible to say: The state of these people, with what they are upon of pursuing falsehood and immersing themselves in it, is likened to the state of one who enters water that covers him for the sake of play—a state that combines the wasting of time after toil in labor. The discourse, in that case, is on the pattern of its predecessor—namely, His words, "each faction rejoicing in what they have." When they were made to be rejoicing in delusion, they were also made to be playing. The first interpretation is more manifest, and this may also be treated as a tamthiliyyah (representational) metaphor; indeed, it is worthier according to the rhetoricians, as is not hidden.

Ali—may Allah honor his countenance—along with Abu Haywah and al-Sulami, read it as “fi ghamaratihim” (in their ignorances) in the plural form, because for every individual, there is an ignorance.