Tafsir of Al-Qasas 28:64

"And it will be said, 'Call upon your partners...'"

{If only they had been guided} To some means of trickery by which they might avert the punishment. Or: If they had been guided believers, they would not have seen it. Or: They wished they had been guided. Or: They were bewildered upon seeing it, becoming confused and unable to find a way.

He first recounted how they are rebuked for taking partners for Him, then what the devils or their leaders say when they are rebuked—for when they are reproached for worshipping idols, they excuse themselves by claiming the devils misled them and made the worship attractive to them. Then, he describes what resembles gloating over them: their calling upon their gods, the gods' abandonment of them, and their inability to help them. Then, he describes how they are silenced by the argument against them regarding the sending of messengers and the removal of excuses.

{So the news will be blinded to them} The news will become as if it were blind to them all; they will not be able to find their way to it.

{So they will not ask one another} They will not ask one another, as people do regarding difficult matters, because they are all equal in the blindness of the news to them and their inability to provide an answer. It is also read as fa-‘amiyat (the news became blind).

The "news" refers to the report of how the one to whom a messenger was sent responded to his messenger. If the prophets themselves, due to the terror of that Day, falter in answering such a question and entrust the matter to the knowledge of Allah—as in His saying: "The Day when Allah will assemble the messengers and say, 'What was the response you received?' They will say, 'We have no knowledge. Indeed, it is You who is the Knower of the unseen'" (Al-Ma'idah: 109)—then what do you think of the misguided among their nations?

{But as for one who repented, believed, and did righteousness, it is expected that he will be among the successful.}