and those close to it among the remnants of the Children of Israel, and those who remained upon their polytheism among the people of hypocrisy whose stories we have previously explained in this book of ours.

And we have already demonstrated that the statement of God, Exalted be His Praise: "Indeed, those who disbelieve—it is all the same to them", and His statement: "And among the people are those who say, 'We believe in God and the Last Day'", were revealed concerning them, and concerning those who were upon the like of what they were upon regarding polytheism with God. However, these verses, in my view, even though they were revealed concerning them, mean anyone who is upon the like of the misguidance they were upon; and specifically, whoever fits the description of the hypocrites among them refers to all hypocrites (1); while whoever fits the description of the disbelieving rabbis of the Jews refers to all who are similar to them in their disbelief.

That is because God, Exalted be His Praise, sometimes encompasses all of them in the description, due to having mentioned all of them together at the beginning of the verses that narrated their stories; and He sometimes specifies some of them with the description, due to differentiating at the beginning of the verses between their two groups—meaning: the group of hypocrites among the idolaters and people of polytheism with God, and the group of disbelieving rabbis of the Jews. Thus, those who break God's covenant are those who abandon what God covenanted with them regarding the affirmation of Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) and what he brought, and making his prophethood clear to the people, while concealing that explanation after knowing it and after what God took upon them regarding that, just as God, Exalted be His Mention, said: {And when God took a covenant from those who were given the Scripture, "You shall surely clarify it to the people and not conceal it." But they threw it behind their backs} [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 187]. And their throwing it behind their backs is their breaking of the covenant He covenanted with them in the Torah, which we have described, and their abandonment of acting upon it.

I only said that He meant by these verses those whom I said He meant because the verses—from the beginning of the five and six verses of Sūrat al-Baqara (2)—were revealed concerning them, up to the completion of their stories.