And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him

This was revealed regarding a group who apostatized—they were twelve men—and departed from Medina and came to Mecca as disbelievers, among them was al-Harith ibn Suwayd al-Ansari.

"Al-Islam": It is said to be monotheism and submission; and it is said to be the legislation (Shari'ah) of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The Exalted has clarified that whoever seeks after his mission, may the peace and blessings of the Exalted be upon him, a legislation other than his own, it shall not be accepted from him. Acceptance of a thing is satisfaction with it and rewarding the doer for it.

"Dinan" (religion) is in the accusative case as a specifier (tamyiz) for "ghayra" (other), and "ghayra" is the object of "yabtaghi" (seeks). It is permitted that "dinan" be the object of "yabtaghi" and "ghayra" be an adjective that was moved forward and thus became a state (hal). It is also said: it is a substitution for "ghayra al-Islam". The majority preserve both ghayns (in ghayra al-Islam), though it is narrated from Abu 'Amr that he assimilated them; Abu al-Baqa' weakened this, as the kasra of the first ghayn indicates the elided ya'.

And he is in the Hereafter among the losers

This is either conjoined to the response of the conditional clause, thus being in the place of jussive, or it is in the place of a state (hal) from the pronominal suffix, thus being in the place of accusative, or it is an initiated sentence, thus having no grammatical place.

"In the Hereafter" relates to a hidden predicate indicated by what follows it—i.e., "and he is a loser in the Hereafter"—or it relates to "the losers," on the premise that the alif and lam (the definite article) are not relative, but are for definition.

Loss in the Hereafter is the deprivation of reward and the attainment of punishment. It is said: the root of loss is the vanishing of capital, and what is intended here is the squandering of the sound natural disposition (fitra) upon which he was created—referred to in the hadith, "Every newborn is born upon the fitra"—and the failure to benefit from that, and the manifestation of this by realizing its opposite: "The day when neither wealth nor sons will be of any benefit, except for one who comes to Allah with a sound heart."

The expression "the losers" is more eloquent than expressing it as "a loser," as we have indicated previously. It is treated as an intransitive verb, and for this reason, its object is omitted; the meaning is that he is among those who fall into loss.

The verse has been used as evidence that faith (iman) is Islam; for if it were other than it, it would not be accepted, and the consequent is necessarily false, therefore the antecedent is false. It was answered that "it will never be accepted from him" denies the acceptance of any religion that deviates from the religion of Islam, and faith, even if it is "other than Islam" in terms of concept, does not deviate from the religion of Islam, but is the same in essence.

The Imam mentioned that the apparent meaning of this verse indicates a lack of distinction, while the saying of the Exalted, "The bedouins say, 'We have believed.' Say, 'You have not believed; rather say, 'We have submitted,'" indicates a distinction. The way to reconcile between them is to interpret the first verse according to the Shari'ah convention, and the second according to linguistic usage.