Tafsir of Al-Jinn 72:7

"And that they thought" — meaning, the humans.

"as you thought" — O you Jinn; this being the speech of some of them to others.

"that Allah would not resurrect anyone" — meaning, from the messengers to any of the servants. It is also said that it means He, glorified be He, would not resurrect anyone after death. Regardless, the intent is that they erred, and you have erred. Perhaps it is connected to [the concept of] belief. It is also said the meaning is: "They thought, as you, O disbelievers, thought that [the particle] lan (never), etc."

Thus, this verse would be part of the speech being revealed, conjoined to His saying, "He listened." Based on the reading with the kasra [on the hamza of innahu], it is an isti'naf (a new beginning) of His speech, as is the preceding [verse], according to what has been said.

In al-Kashshaf, it is said that both verses—meaning this one and His saying, "And that there were men..."—are part of what was revealed. This was countered in al-Kashf by noting it contains a weakness, because His saying, "And we touched the sky..." is the speech of the Jinn, or part of what they confirmed, according to both readings; for it is what was revealed to him, so the intervening text [in the middle] is not an impermissible digression, unless it is interpreted as running in its course because it emphasizes what was narrated about them regarding their persistence in disbelief initially. The affectation in that is not hidden. End quote.

Abu al-Sa'ud chose, regarding all the sentences beginning with "that" (anna), that the conjunction is on "that he listened," similar to what you heard from Abu Hatim, and you have heard the critique of that just now. [The anna in annahu] is a lightened form of the heavy [annahu]; its subject is the pronoun of state (dhamir al-sha'n), and the sentence following it is the predicate.

The sentence "that Allah would not resurrect anyone" is said to occupy the place of the two objects of "they thought." It is also permitted that it occupies the place of the two objects of "you thought," and that the one occupying the place of the two objects of the first [verb] is omitted, as is the chosen view in such instances. The first view is considered stronger in the verse, because "they thought" is the primary intent, so the mentioned operative object is assigned to it as being better, while "as you thought" is mentioned subordinately. From this, it is known that the view—that the chosen position regarding al-tanazu' (competition between two verbs for one object) is to make the second operative—is not absolute.