Tafsir of Ghafir 40:4

"None dispute concerning the signs of Allah except those who disbelieve..."

This is a condemnation of those who dispute the signs of Allah with disbelief. The intended meaning is disputation through falsehood—by attacking them, aiming to refute the truth, and seeking to extinguish the light of Allah. This is evidenced by the verse: "And they disputed with falsehood to refute the truth thereby" (Ghafir: 5).

As for disputing the signs to clarify what is ambiguous, resolve what is difficult, engage in scholarly discourse to derive their meanings, or use them to refute the people of deviation, this is the greatest form of Jihad in the path of Allah. The Prophet’s (ﷺ) statement, "Disputation regarding the Quran is disbelief," is indefinite (using nakira). By not saying "the disputation," he distinguishes between one type of disputation and another.

If you ask: From where does the phrase "So let not... deceive you" (v. 4) derive its cause from what preceded it?

I say: Since they were testified against by Allah as being disbelievers—and there is no one more wretched before Allah than a disbeliever—it is incumbent upon anyone who realizes this not to envy their condition. One should not be deceived by their worldly prosperity or their movement through the lands with profitable trade and gains. The Quraysh were like this, traveling to the lands of the Levant and Yemen, possessing wealth and earning profits. Yet, the end and consequence of this is disappearance, followed by eternal wretchedness.

He then provides an example of their denial, their hostility toward the messengers, their disputation with falsehood, and the evil consequence stored up for them, by citing the nations that preceded them and the punishment He inflicted upon them. It is also recited as: fala yaghurruka (So let it not deceive you).

"The people of Noah denied before them, as did the factions after them. Every nation plotted against their messenger to seize him, and they disputed with falsehood to refute the truth thereby. So I seized them, and how [terrible] was My penalty!"