[114] This describes the stance of a third category of Madinan Jews with regards to the Message of Muhammad (ﷺ); namely, the ill-educated who follow what their minds tell them of what their Scripture says. The first two being the learned who willingly twist the words of God even after they have fully comprehended them, and the hypocrites who when they meet Muslims pay them lip service. (al-Ṭabarī, al-Saʿdī)
[115] They concoct false wishes. God has given examples of such falsity in 2: 111 and 4: 123.
[116] What they claim to be their Scripture. (Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī)
[117] They were so audacious because of this claim. (al-Saʿdī)
[118] Aḥāṭat bihi khaṭī’atuhu ‘surrounded by his sin’, is, in other words, immersed in sin.