statement overlooked the difference between "he who" in the two verses and in the poetic line. For "he who" in His statement: {And he who brought the truth}, an indication has been provided that its meaning is plural, which is His statement: {those are the righteous}; likewise, "he who" in the poetic line, which is his saying: "their blood". But this indication is not present in His statement: {like the similitude of he who kindled a fire}. That, then, is the difference between "he who" in His statement: {like the similitude of he who kindled a fire} and the rest of the textual evidences he cited to argue that the meaning of "he who" in His statement: {like the similitude of he who kindled a fire} is plural. And it is not permissible for anyone to transfer a word—which is predominantly used by the Arabs according to one meaning—to another, except with a proof to which submission is mandatory.

Then the scholars of interpretation differed regarding the interpretation of that. Thus, several views were narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning it:

One of them is what:

386- Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, saying: Salama narrated to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, from ʿIkrima, or from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: God struck a parable for the hypocrites, saying: {Their similitude is as the similitude of he who kindled a fire; then, when it illuminated what was around him, God took away their light and left them in darknesses, not seeing}, meaning: seeing the truth and speaking it, until when they exited with it from the darkness of disbelief, they extinguished it by their disbelief and hypocrisy regarding it, so He left them in the darknesses of disbelief, so they do not see guidance nor do they remain upright upon truth. And another is what:

387- Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, from Ibn ʿAbbās: {Their similitude is as the similitude of he who kindled a fire} to the end of the āyah: This is a parable that God struck for the hypocrites, in that they used to find honor through Islam, so Muslims would marry them, inherit from them, and share spoils with them; but when they died, God stripped them of that honor, just as He stripped the owner of the fire of his light. {And left them in darknesses}, he says: in punishment.