{their commerce earned no profit, nor were they guided}: "By God, you have seen them leave guidance for misguidance, unity for division, security for fear, and the Sunna for innovation." (1)

Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone should ask: What is the aspect of His statement: {So their commerce earned no profit}? Is commerce something that can profit or suffer loss, such that it can be said "it profited" or "it suffered a loss" (2)?

It is said: The aspect of that is different from what you thought. Rather, its meaning is: they did not profit in their commerce—neither in what they bought nor in what they sold. However, God—majestic is His praise—addressed Arabs in His Book, following in His address and clarification to them the same manner in which they address and clarify to one another as customarily used among them (3). So when it was eloquent to them for a person to say to another: "May your effort fail," "May your night sleep," and "May your sale lose," and similar speech whose speaker's intent is obvious to the listener—He addressed them using speech that belongs to their manner of speaking, saying: {So their commerce earned no profit}, since it was understood by them that profit only occurs in commerce, just as sleep occurs in the night. Thus, relying on the listener's understanding of that meaning sufficed instead of saying: "So they did not profit in their commerce," even though that is its meaning; just as the poet said: And the worst of deaths is a dead person among his family ... like the demise of a maiden whose present tribe surrendered her (4)

He means by that: "The worst of deaths is the death of a dead person among his family." Thus, relying on the listener's understanding of his intended meaning sufficed instead of expressing what he left unexpressed; and just as Ruʾba ibn al-ʿAjjāj said: O Ḥārith! You have relieved my worry ... so my night slept and my grief cleared (5)

So he described the night with sleep, while its meaning is that he himself slept; and just as Jarīr ibn al-Khaṭafā said: And a one-eyed man of Nabhān, as for his day ... he is blind, and as for his night, he is seeing (6)

So he attributed blindness and sight to day and night, while his intention was to describe the man of Nabhān with that.

The commentary on the interpretation of His statement: ﴿and they were not guided (16)﴾

He means by His statement—majestic is His praise—{and they were not guided}: They were not righteous in choosing misguidance over guidance, exchanging disbelief for faith, and buying hypocrisy with affirmation and confirmation.