'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (yet ye it is who slay each other and drive out a party of your people from their homes, supporting one another against them by sin) contravention (and transgression) offence-(and if they came to you as captives) captives who belong to your religion (ye would ransom them) free them by paying a ransom to the enemy (-whereas their expulsion was itself unlawful for you) whereas their expulsion and killing were unlawful in the first place. (believe ye in part of the scripture) the part that stipulates freeing your captives from the enemy (and disbelieve ye in part thereof?) and leave the captives of your friends without ransoming them. it is also said that this verse means: do you believe in those parts of the scripture that suit your whim and disbelieve in those parts that do not? (and what is the reward of those who do so save ignominy in the life of the world) by being killed or captured as slaves, (and on the day of resurrection they will be consigned to the most grievous doom. for allah is not unaware) he is not reducing your punishment because (of what ye do) in terms of transgression; and it is also said: because of what they concealed.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : then there you are killing one another, and expelling a party of you from their habitations, conspiring (tazzāharūna: the original ta’ has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has it without [the assimilation, that is, tazāharūna]), assisting one another, against them in sin, in disobedience, and enmity, injustice, and if they come to you as captives (a variant reading [for usārā] has asrā), you ransom them (a variant reading [for tafdūhum] has tufādūhum), that is to say, you deliver them from captivity with money etc., and this [ransoming] was one of the things to which they were pledged; yet their expulsion was forbidden you (muharramun ‘alaykum ikhrājuhum is semantically connected to wa-tukhrijūna, ‘and expelling’, and the statement that comes in between is parenthetical, that is, [expulsion was forbidden you] in the same way that non-ransoming was forbidden you). qurayza had allied themselves with the aws, and the nadīr with the khazraj, but every member of an alliance would fight against a fellow ally, thus destroying each other’s homes and expelling one another, taking prisoners and then ransoming them. when they were asked: ‘why do you fight them and then pay their ransom?’, they would reply, ‘because we have been commanded to ransom’; and they would be asked, ‘so, why do you fight them then?’, to which they would say, ‘for fear that our allies be humiliated’; god, exalted, says: what, do you believe in part of the book, that is, the part about ransom, and disbelieve in part?, namely, the part about renouncing fighting, expulsion and assistance [against one another]; what shall be the requital of those of you who do that, but degradation, disgrace and ignominy, in the life of this world: they were disgraced when qurayza were slewn and the nadīr were expelled to syria, and ordered to pay the jizya; and on the day of resurrection to be returned to the most terrible of chastisement? and god is not heedless of what you do (ta‘malūna, or read ya‘malūna, ‘they do’).
