تفسير : (those who break the qur'an into parts) they said many different things about the qur'an; some said it was magic, others said it was poetry, others said it was a form of divination; some said it was fables of the people of old while others said that it was mere lies invented by the prophet.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : those who have reduced the recitation, namely, those scriptures revealed to them, to parts, believing in some and disbelieving in others. it is [alternatively] said that the individuals meant here were those who ‘divided up’ among themselves the roads to mecca, barring people from islam. some of them said that the qur’ān was sorcery, some that it was soothsaying, and others that it was poetry.
Sahl al-Tustari
تفسير : those who have reduced the recitation (qurʾān) to parts.he [sahl] said:the outward meaning of the verse is as the commentators have explained. however, its inner meaning concerns the rules (aḥkām) that god, exalted is he, sent down regarding our hearing, sight and heart[s] (fuʾād), [referred to] in his words, exalted is he: indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart, each of these it will be asked [17:36]. thus, they turned away from acting by it, inclining towards the demands of their natural self (nafs al-ṭabʿ). his words, exalted is he:
