reckon that by doing so they are peacemakers in it. God, whose praise is Majestic, did not waive His punishment from them, nor did He lighten for them the painful punishment He prepared for the people of disobedience to Him—on account of their reckoning that in what they committed of acts of disobedience to God they were peacemakers; rather, He decreed for them the lowest depth of His Hellfire, the painfulness of His punishment, and immediate disgrace through God reviling them and censuring them, as the Exalted said: {Unquestionably, it is they who are the corrupters, but they perceive it not.} That ruling of God, whose praise is Majestic, concerning them is the clearest proof of His, the Exalted's, refutation of the statement of those who say: "The punishments of God are deserved only by the one who stubbornly opposes his Lord regarding the rights and obligations binding upon him, after his knowledge and the establishment of proof against him by his awareness that it is binding upon him."

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The discourse regarding the interpretation of the statement of Him whose praise is Majestic: ﴿They say, "We are only peacemakers" (11)﴾

And the interpretation of that is like what Ibn ʿAbbās said, which—:

341- Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, saying: Salamah ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freed slave of Zayd ibn Thābit, from ʿIkrimah or from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding His statement: {We are only peacemakers}, meaning: They said, "We only intend peacemaking between the two parties, the believers and the People of the Book."

And others differed with him regarding that.

342- al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd narrated to us, saying: Ḥajjāj narrated to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid: {And when it is said to them, "Do not cause corruption on the earth"}, he said: When they committed disobedience to God and it was said to them, "Do not do such and such," they said, "We are upon guidance, peacemakers." (1)