Al-Ma'idah (5:80) - You see many of them...

Then the Almighty said: {You see many of them taking as allies those who disbelieve}.

Know that when the Almighty described their predecessors with what preceded, He then described the present ones among them as taking disbelievers and idolaters as allies. What is meant here are people like Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf and his companions, when they incited the polytheists against the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. We have already mentioned this in relation to the Almighty's saying: {And they say to those who disbelieve, "These are more rightly guided than those who have believed in their way"} (An-Nisa: 51).

Then the Almighty said: {Evil is that which their souls have put forth for them}. This means: Evil is the deed they presented for their return in the Abode of the Hereafter.

And the Almighty's saying: {That God is wrathful with them, and in the punishment they will abide forever}. The grammatical position of {أن} (that) is in the nominative case (rafʿ), similar to saying: B'isa rajulan Zayd (Evil is the man, Zayd), and its rafʿ is like the rafʿ of Zayd. There are two views regarding Zayd:

1. That it is the subject (mubtada'), and B'isa (Evil is) and what it operates upon is its predicate (khabar).
2. That it is the predicate of an omitted subject, as if He said: B'isa rajulan qutila (Evil is the man who was killed): What is he? He replied: Zayd, meaning, Huwa Zayd (He is Zayd).

{80} {If they had believed in God and the Prophet and what was revealed to him, they would not have taken them as allies, but many of them are defiantly disobedient (Fāsiqūn).}