'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : allah then revealed about their saying: "we do not know any religious community that is more disfavoured than muhammad (pbuh) and his companions", saying: (shall i tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs) that which is worse than what you told muhammad and his companions (for retribution with allah) for him who is going to be punished by allah? (worse (is the case of him) whom allah hath cursed) imposing on him the capitation tax, (him on whom his wrath hath fallen! worse is he of whose sort allah hath turned some to apes) in the time of the prophet david (pbuh) (and swine) in the time of jesus, after eating from the table that allah sent from heaven, (and who serveth idols) soothsayers and devils; or he whom allah has made the worshipper of the devil, idols and soothsayers. (such are in worse plight) worse in works in this world and worse in status in the hereafter (and further astray from the plain road) the road of guidance.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : say: ‘shall i tell you, [shall] i inform you, of what is worse than, the followers of, that, about which you are spiteful, by way of reward, requital, from god? they are, those whom god has cursed, [whom] he has removed from his mercy, and with whom he is wroth, and some of whom he has turned into apes and swine, by transformation, and, those who, worship the false deity, satan, by obeying him (the particle minhum, ‘some of whom’, takes into account the [potentially plural] import of the particle min, ‘[those] whom’, and in what precedes [minhum, ‘some of whom’], the [singular] form [of min is taken into account]; a variant reading has ‘abuda al-tāghūt as [the genitive of] an annexation, ‘abud being a [variant] plural of ‘abd; the accusative ending [of ‘abuda] is because the clause is a supplement to al-qirada, ‘apes’), and these were the jews. they are worse situated (makānan is for specification), for their abode shall be the fire, and further astray from the even way’, from the path of truth (al-sawā’ originally means al-wasat, ‘middle’); the use of sharrun, ‘worse’, and adallu, ‘further astray’, is intended to counter their saying, ‘we know of no religion worse [sharrun] than yours’.
