other in al-Mujādila: {They have taken their oaths as a cover, so they averted [people] from the way of Allah; so for them is a humiliating punishment} [Surat al-Mujādila: 16]. Thus, He, High is His praise, informed that the hypocrites—by their saying what they said to the Messenger of Allah—Peace and blessings of God be upon him—while believing regarding him what they believed—are liars. Then He, Exalted is His mention, informed that the humiliating punishment for them is upon that lying of theirs. And had the correct recitation been according to what the reciters recited in Surat al-Baqara: "and for them is a painful punishment because they used to call [the truth] a lie" (yukadhdhibūn), the recitation in the other Sura would have been: "and Allah testifies that the hypocrites" are indeed deniers of truth, so that the threat to them immediately following that would be a threat for calling [the truth] a lie, not for lying. And in the Consensus of the Muslims that the correct recitation in His statement: "And Allah testifies that the hypocrites are liars" is in the sense of lying—and that the threat of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, therein to the hypocrites with painful punishment is upon that lying of theirs—is the clearest indication that the correct recitation in Surat al-Baqara is: "because they used to lie" (yakdhibūn) in the sense of lying, and that the threat from Allah, Exalted is His mention, to the hypocrites therein is for lying—truly—not for calling [the truth] a lie which was not mentioned, exactly parallel to what is in Surat al-Munāfiqūn.

And some of the grammarians of Basra claimed that "mā" in the statement of Allah, Blessed is His Name, {because they used to lie} is a verbal noun particle, just as "an" and the verb are two nouns forming a verbal noun in your saying: "I like that you come to me", and that the meaning is merely "by their lying and their calling [the truth] a lie." He said: And He inserted "kāna" to inform that it was in the past, just as it is said: "How good was ʿAbd Allāh", for you admire ʿAbd Allāh, not his being, though the exclamation in wording fell upon his being. But some of the grammarians of Kufa used to disavow that from his statement and consider it an error, saying: "Kāna" was only rendered annulled in exclamation because the verb preceded it, as if he said: "Good was Zayd" and "Good was Zayd", annulling "kāna", and operating with nouns and attributes that have the form of nouns when they come before "kāna" and "kāna" falls between them and the nouns. As for the Legal cause (ʿilla) in annulling it when it is annulled in this state, it is due to the resemblance of attributes and nouns to "faʿala" and "yafʿalu", whose operation