“The Messenger of God was not pleased with their action ... nor were the two good ones, Abū Bakr, nor ʿUmar” (1)

So that was permissible because the negation had preceded at the beginning of the statement.

Abū Jaʿfar said: And this latter view is more deserving of being correct than the first, since starting a statement without a preceding negation with “lā” that carries the meaning of omission is nonexistent in the speech of the Arabs, nor is it permissible to conjunct with it onto “siwā”, nor onto a particle of exception. Rather, “ghayr” in the speech of the Arabs has three meanings: one of them is exception, another is negation, and the third is “siwā”. Thus, when it is proven incorrect for “lā” to be used as redundant at the beginning (2), and invalid for it to be a conjunction onto “ghayr” which is with “those who incurred anger”, if it were in the sense of “illā” (except) which is exception, and it was also impermissible to conjunct onto it if it were in the sense of “siwā”, and “lā” is present conjunctive with the “wāw” that conjuncts it to what precedes it — it becomes sound (3) and established that there is no aspect for “ghayr”, which is with “those who incurred anger”, that can correctly be directed except in the sense of denial and negation, and that there is no aspect for His statement, “nor of those who go astray”, except conjunction onto “not of those who incurred anger”.

The interpretation of the statement, then — since what we said is sound based on what we cited as evidence — is: Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who incurred anger, nor of those who go astray.

So if someone says to us: “And who are these who go astray whom God commanded us to seek refuge in God from traveling their path or going astray as they went astray?”

It is said: They are those whom God described in His Revelation (tanzīl), saying: {Say, “O People of the Scripture, do not exceed limits in your religion beyond the truth and do not follow the inclinations of a people who had gone astray before and misled many}