Tafsir of Al-Ahqaf 46:6

"And when the people are gathered" — meaning, upon the establishment of the Resurrection — "they will be" — that is, the worshipped ones — "for them" — meaning, the worshippers — "enemies" — intensely hostile. "And they will be" — that is, the worshipped ones as well — "of their worship" — meaning, the worship of the disbelievers directed toward them — "disbelievers" — deniers.

The matter is evident regarding those endowed with intellect. As for the idols, it has been narrated that Allah, the Exalted, will create in them perception and grant them speech, whereupon they will disavow their worship and thus become enemies unto them. It is also considered possible that the denial of the idols occurs through the tongue of circumstance, due to the clarity that they are not worthy of worship and that they hold no benefit—contrary to what [the disbelievers] had imagined initially when they said: "We do not worship them except that they may bring us nearer to Allah," and sought intercession from them.

"Enmity" has been interpreted as "harm," treating it as a metaphorical expression (majaz mursal) for it; thus, the meaning of "they were to them enemies" is "they were harmful to them."

What we have mentioned regarding the explanation of the pronouns is the apparent meaning. It has been said: the explicit nominative pronoun [the waw] and the hidden pronoun in the words of the Exalted, "And they of their invocation are unaware," refer to the disbelievers who are invoking. The pronoun in "their invocation" refers to the disbelievers or to the worshipped ones. The meaning would be that the disbelievers are heedless of their own error in invoking those who do not respond to them, failing to reflect upon what is upon them in that regard. In this [interpretation] is the committal of departing from the apparent meaning—as is the case with the pronouns following it.

The meaning [of the verse] is: when people are gathered, they—the disbelievers—are enemies to their false deities because of what they perceive of the torment resulting from their worship of them, and they are, for that reason, deniers that they worshipped anyone other than Allah, the Exalted, as Allah, the Exalted, relates about them: "By Allah, our Lord, we were not idolaters." This has been countered by the argument that the context is for explaining the state of the deities toward them, not the reverse, and because their "disbelief" at that time would be a denial of their own worship, and to label that [act of denial] as "disbelief" is contrary to the apparent meaning.