bad [khalfun] and good [khalafun], with the letter lam being both vowelless [sakinah] and vocalized with a fatha in both instances. He cited the verse of Hassan ibn Thabit:

(We possess the first precedence over them, and our successors [khalfun]… to our first ones in the obedience of Allah, they follow.)

Abu Ubayd mentioned that the preference among linguists is for the term khalf — with the lam vowelless — to be used in the context of censure, and khalaf — with a fatha — in the context of praise.

"They take the fleeting goods [arad] of this lower life and say, 'We will be forgiven,' and if similar fleeting goods come to them, they take them."

Mujahid said: It means that whatever of the worldly life presents itself to them, whether lawful or unlawful, they take it and wish for forgiveness, yet if they find its like on the morrow, they take it.

"And they have studied what is in it." He says: They have read what is in it, in this Book; contrary to what they say and what they do. "Do they not then reason?" regarding what they study.