Tafsir of Al-Jathiyah 45:7

"The sinful liar" (al-affāk): The habitual liar. "The wicked" (al-athīm): One who is excessive in committing sins.

"He persists" (yusirru): He turns toward his disbelief and remains upon it. Its root is derived from the donkey’s persistence toward the herd, meaning it inclines toward them and pricks up its ears.

"Arrogant" (mustakbiran): Arrogant toward believing in the signs and submitting to the truth spoken, holding them in contempt while being impressed with his own views. It is said this was revealed regarding al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and his purchasing of the tales of the Persians to distract people from listening to the Quran. However, the verse is general, applying to anyone who harms the religion of God.

If you ask: What is the meaning of "then" (thumma) in His saying, "Then he persists, arrogant"? I say: It is like its meaning in the saying of the poet: He sees the depths of death, then he visits them. This is because the depths of death are such that one who sees them should save himself and seek to flee. As for visiting them and proceeding to engage with them, that is something improbable. Thus, the meaning of "then" is to signal that the act of proceeding toward them after having seen and witnessed them is something contrary to custom and nature. Likewise, regarding the clear signs of God that speak the truth: when they are recited to someone and he hears them, it is intellectually improbable that he would persist in misguidance and be arrogant toward believing in them.

"As if" (ka'an): This is the lightened form (mukhaffafah), and the original is "as if he" (ka'annahu). The pronoun is the pronoun of the state (ḍamīr al-sha'n), as in the verse: As if a gazelle reaches for the fresh acacia. The position of the sentence is in the accusative as a state (ḥāl), meaning: he becomes like one who has not heard.

"And when" (wa-idhā): When something of Our signs reaches him and he knows it is from them, "he takes them as a mockery" (ittakhadhahā huzuwan). He did not say "takes it" (ittakhadhahu) to signal that when he senses that any part of the speech is among the signs God revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him), he plunges into mocking all the signs, not limiting himself to mocking only what reached him.

It is also possible that when he knows something of Our signs that an adversary can cling to—finding a pretext to climb upon for the sake of criticism and fault-finding—he seizes the opportunity and takes the signs of God as a mockery. This is like Ibn al-Ziba‘rā seizing upon His saying, "Indeed, you and what you worship other than God are the firewood of Hell" (Al-Anbiyāʾ: 98), and his fallacious argument against the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), saying, "I have defeated you." It is also permissible for the pronoun to refer to "something" (shayʾ), because it carries the meaning of "sign," as in the saying of Abū al-‘Atāhiyah: My soul is attached to something of the world, May God and the guided successor suffice it. (Where he meant his family).

It is read: "He knows those" (‘alima ulāʾika), a reference to every sinful liar, due to its inclusion of all such liars.

"Behind them" (min warāʾihim): Warāʾ is a name for the direction a person conceals, whether behind or in front. The poet said: Is it not behind me, if my death is delayed, That I should be disciplined with children, crawling like a vulture? From this is His saying, "From behind them," meaning: in front of them.

"What they have earned" (mā kasabū): Of wealth in their caravans and trade. "Nor what they took besides God" (wa-lā mā ittakhadhū min dūni Allāh): Of idols.

"This is guidance. And those who disbelieve in the signs of their Lord will have a painful punishment of foul affliction."