O Messenger
"Do not let those who hasten into disbelief grieve you"
It is read la yuḥzinuka (with a damma on the yāʾ). The meaning is: do not be concerned or troubled by the hypocrites’ hastening into disbelief—that is, in manifesting it through the signs of malice toward Islam and allegiance to the polytheists that appear from them. For I am your supporter against them and sufficient for you against their evil.
It is said: "The gray hair hastened in him" or "corruption hastened in it," meaning it occurred quickly. Likewise, their hastening into disbelief, their falling into it, and their rushing toward it is the swiftest thing; if they find an opportunity, they do not miss it.
"Of those who say with their mouths"
Min (of) is the object of "say," and bi-afwāhihim (with their mouths) is connected to "say," not to "we believe."
"And of those who are Jews"
This is a new sentence, separate from what precedes it, serving as a predicate for sammāʿūn (they are listeners). That is: "And among the Jews are a people who are listeners to falsehood." It is also permissible to parse it as a conjunction to "those who say." Sammāʿūn is in the nominative case, as if to say: "They are listeners." The pronoun refers to both groups or to the Jews.
"Listeners to falsehood"
Meaning: they are receptive to the lies that the rabbis fabricate and invent against God, and to their distortion of His Book. This is like your saying, "The king listens to the speech of so-and-so" (meaning he accepts it). From this is the phrase: "God hears (accepts/responds to) those who praise Him."
"Listeners to other people who have not come to you"
Meaning: the Jews who did not reach the assembly of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) and stayed away from him due to the intensity of their hatred and extreme enmity. They are receptive to the rabbis and those extreme enemies who cannot bear to look at you.
It is also said: They are "listeners" to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) in order to lie about him, by distorting what they heard from him through addition, omission, alteration, and change. They are listeners from the Messenger of God on behalf of other people among the Jews who sent them as spies to convey to them what they heard from him.
It is also said: The "listeners" are the Banu Qurayza, and the "other people" are the Jews of Khaybar.
"They distort words from their places"
They tilt them and remove them from the places where God Almighty placed them, placing them in other positions after they had their proper places.
"If you are given this"
The distorted word, removed from its place.
"Take it"
Know that it is the truth and act upon it.
"But if you are not given it"
And Muhammad gives you a legal opinion (fatwa) contrary to it.
"Then beware"
Avoid it and stay away from it, for it is falsehood and misguidance.
The Occasion of Revelation:
It is narrated that a nobleman from Khaybar committed adultery with a noblewoman, and both were married. Their punishment in the Torah was stoning. They disliked stoning them due to their high status, so they sent a group of their people to the Banu Qurayza to ask the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) about it. They said: "If Muhammad commands you to flog and blacken their faces, accept it; but if he commands you to stone them, do not accept it." They sent the two adulterers with them. He commanded them to be stoned, but they refused to accept it.
Gabriel said to him: "Place Ibn Suriya as an arbiter between you and them." He asked: "Do you know a young, beardless, one-eyed man who lives in Fadak called Ibn Suriya?" They said: "Yes, he is the most knowledgeable Jew on the face of the earth." They agreed to him as an arbiter.
The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said to him: "I adjure you by God, besides whom there is no god, who parted the sea for Moses, raised the Mount above you, saved you, and drowned the people of Pharaoh—and who sent down to you His Book, its lawful and its unlawful—do you find in it stoning for those who are married?" He said: "Yes." The low-class Jews jumped on him, and he said: "I feared that if I denied it, the punishment would descend upon us."
Then the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) asked him about things he knew from his signs. He said: "I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that you are the Messenger of God, the unlettered Arab Prophet whom the messengers gave glad tidings of." The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) commanded the two adulterers, and they were stoned at the door of his mosque.
"And whoever God intends to test"
Meaning: leaving him in a state of trial and abandoning him.
"You will not possess for him anything from God"
You will not be able to secure for him anything of God’s grace and guidance.
"Those are the ones for whom God did not intend"
To grant them of His graces that would purify their hearts, because they are not worthy of it, for He knows that it would not benefit them or be effective for them.
"Indeed, those who do not believe in the signs of God, God does not guide them" (An-Nahl: 104).
"How shall God guide a people who disbelieved after their belief?" (Al-Imran: 86).
