Tafsir of Al Imran 3:86

(How shall Allah guide) to the true religion (a people who disbelieved after their belief). Abd ibn Humayd and others narrated from al-Hasan that they are the People of the Book—the Jews and the Christians—who saw the descriptions of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in their scripture, acknowledged them, and bore witness that he was the truth. When he was sent from among others, they envied the Arabs for that, so they denied him and disbelieved after their acknowledgment, out of envy toward the Arabs because he was sent from among others.

Ibn Abi Hatim narrated through the path of al-Awfi from Ibn Abbas the same, and Ikrima said: They are Abu Amir al-Rahib and al-Harith ibn Suwayd among twelve men who renounced Islam and joined the Quraysh, then wrote to their people, "Is there any repentance for us?" Thus, the verse was revealed concerning them, and most narrations support this.

The intended meaning of the verse is to deem it improbable that He would guide them—that is, to provide them with guidance that results in reaching the destination, not absolute guidance—this was stated by some. It is said: The meaning is, how shall He conduct them along the path of the guided ones by rewarding them and praising them, while they have done what they have done? It is also said: The verse is by way of distancing, as one says: "How shall I guide you to the road while you have abandoned it?"—meaning, there is no road by which He could guide them to faith except the way by which He had already guided them, and they have abandoned it, and there is no other way. It is also said: The meaning is, how shall He guide them to Paradise and reward them while the situation is as you see, and they testified that the Messenger—who is Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is (the truth), there being no doubt in his messengership, and the clear proofs came to them, meaning the demonstrations and arguments that speak to the truth of what he claims. It is also said: [The "clear proofs" refers to] the Quran. It is also said: [It refers to] what is in their books regarding the glad tidings of him, upon him be blessings and peace.

(And they bore witness) is a conjunction linked to what is in their [word] imānihim (their belief) of a verbal meaning, because it is equivalent to "they believed." The apparent [interpretation] is that it is a conjunction based on the meaning, as in His saying, exalted is He: "Indeed, the men who practice charity and the women who practice charity..." and "and lend to Allah..." not based on presumption, as some have presumed. Some chose to interpret the conjoined element so that its conjunction to the explicit noun preceding it would be correct by estimating a an (the particle of the masdar) with it; that is, "and their witnessing," on the level of his saying: "And wearing a cloak and my eye being cooled is more beloved to me than wearing [fine] transparent garments." Al-Raghib and Abu al-Baqa went along with this.

It was permitted to conjoin it to (disbelieved), and the corruption of the meaning is warded off by the fact that conjunction does not necessitate sequence. So, let the denial be the witnessing that is concurrent with the disbelief or preceding it. It was objected that the appearance [of the text] necessitates that the conjoined element be qualified by what the element it is conjoined to is qualified by, and this witnessing of theirs was not after their belief, but rather with it or before it. It was answered by refuting this, because it is not necessary for the conjoined element to be qualified by what the element it is conjoined to is qualified by; if that were intended, it would have been placed later. It is said: What prevents this conjunction is that they did not combine witnessing and disbelief. It was answered by refuting this; rather, they did combine them, even if it was not at the same time.

Some people made it a conjunction to (disbelieved) without any of the aforementioned difficulty, and claimed that this refers to the hypocrites, which is contrary to what has been transmitted and what is reasonable. The majority of the verifiers are of the opinion that it is a state (hal) from the pronoun in (disbelieved), with a concealed qad (the particle for emphasizing the past). It is not permissible for the operative word to be "guide," because He guides those who bear witness that the Messenger is the truth. Based on this, and on the estimation of [it being a] conjunction to "belief," it is argued that the confession by the tongue is excluded from the reality of belief. The reasoning is that conjunction ostensibly necessitates a distinction between the conjoined and the element it is conjoined to, and that the state (hal) necessitates qualification. If the confession were included in the reality of belief, mentioning it would be for the sake of [additional] benefit, and if it were identical to it, it would necessitate qualifying a thing by itself, and the [flaw] in that is not hidden. Some claimed that the intended meaning of "belief" is belief in Allah, and the intended meaning of the aforementioned "witnessing" is belief in His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; the matter then is clear, so contemplate this.

(And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people) (meaning: the disbelievers who have wronged themselves by failing to reflect and placing disbelief in the position of faith. So how then [can He guide] one to whom the truth has come and who has recognized it, then turned away from it? It is permissible to construe "wrongdoing" as absolute, so that disbelief enters into it as a primary inclusion, and the sentence is a parenthetical clause or a state).