{ Nay, but those who disbelieve... }

"Nay, but those who disbelieve"—that is, from among your people—"are in denial." This is an exclusionary shift (idtirab intiqali) intended to distinguish them from the aforementioned [the people of the trench], and to demonstrate that they are more severe than them in disbelief and tyranny. This is indicated by the shift from the verb "they deny" (yukadhdhibun) to the nominal phrase "in denial" (fi takdhib), which conveys that denial encompasses them just as a vessel encompasses its contents, or as the sea encompasses one drowning within it. Furthermore, the use of the indefinite form [of "denial"] signifies its magnitude and terrifying nature.

It has been said: They are not merely like them; rather, they are more severe than them, for they are drowned and immersed in a great denial of the Noble Qur'an, and thus are more deserving of punishment. Alternatively, it is as if it were said: Their crime is not merely a lack of remembrance and taking admonition from the account they heard of the [people of the trench], but rather, they are, in addition to that, in a state of great denial regarding the Qur'an that speaks of such matters, and [a denial] that it is a Qur'an from Allah—despite the clarity of its affair and the obviousness of its state, through dazzling proofs.