sat down," while you are imparting information, not inquiring, because of that falling into the position of "whichever". That is because its meaning, when you say that, is: "We do not care whichever of these two came from you." Likewise in His statement: "It is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them," since the meaning of the speech is: "It is equal to them whichever of these two came from you to them," it was fitting in its context alongside "equal" (sawāʾ) to use: "whether you did or did not do".

Some of the grammarians of Basra claimed that the interrogative particle was included with "equal" (sawāʾ), without it being a true question, because when a questioner asks another, saying: "Is Zayd with you or ʿAmr?" he is seeking confirmation from his companion as to which of the two is with him; thus neither of the two is more deserving of the interrogation than the other. So when His statement, "It is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them," bore the meaning of equalizing, it resembled interrogation, since it resembled it in equalizing. And we have already explained the correct view regarding that.

Thus, the interpretation of the speech is: It is equal, O Muḥammad—for these who denied your prophethood from among the rabbis of the Jews of Medina after knowing it, and who hid the clarification of your affair from the people, namely that you are My Messenger to My creation, when I had taken from them the covenant and pledge that they should not conceal that, but rather clarify it to the people and inform them that they find your description in their scriptures—whether you warn them or do not warn them, for they will not believe, nor will they return to the truth, nor will they affirm you and what you brought to them. Just as:

299- Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freed slave of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: {It is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe}, meaning that they have disbelieved in the knowledge they have of the Remembrance, and denied the covenant taken from them regarding you; so they disbelieved in what came to you, and in what they have of what others brought to them. So how could they listen to a warning and cautioning from you, when they have already disbelieved in the knowledge they have concerning you? (1).

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