"What is the matter with you, then, that you have become two factions regarding the hypocrites?" Muhammad said: "Two factions" is in the accusative case (mansub) as a circumstantial qualifier (hal). The meaning is: What is the matter with you in [your] disagreement concerning their affair? "And Allah has cast them back [to disbelief] for what they earned." They were a people from the hypocrites who were in Medina, then they left it for Mecca, and then they left from Mecca to al-Yamamah as merchants; they apostatized from Islam and revealed what was in their hearts of polytheism. The Muslims encountered them, and regarding them, [the Muslims] became "two factions"—meaning: two groups. Some of them said: "Their blood has become lawful; they are polytheists and apostates."