“O believers, do not take outsiders as confidants: they will spare no effort to harm you. They wish you hardship. Hatred has already shown itself from their mouths, but what their hearts conceal is greater. We have made the signs clear to you, if only you would understand. (118) Here you are, loving them while they do not love you, and believing in all the Scriptures. When they meet you, they say, ‘We believe’; but when they are alone, they bite their fingertips at you in rage. Say, ‘Die in your rage!’ Indeed, Allah knows best what is within hearts. (119)”

His saying, Exalted is He: “O believers, do not take outsiders as confidants”—the verse. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Some Muslim men maintained ties with the Jews because of the kinship, friendship, alliances, neighbourly relations, and foster relationships between them. So Allah, Exalted is He, revealed this verse, forbidding them from taking the Jews into their confidence, for fear that they might be put to trial.

Mujahid said: It was revealed concerning a group of believers who maintained friendly relations with the hypocrites. Allah, Exalted is He, therefore forbade them from doing so (1), saying: “O believers, do not take outsiders as confidants”—that is, do not take as allies and intimate friends people outside your religious community. A man’s inner circle is called his biṭānah (confidants), by analogy with the inner lining of a garment that lies against the body: they are privy to his affairs and learn matters of which others are unaware.

He then explained the reason for forbidding them to take such people into their confidence, saying—glorious is His mention—“They will spare no effort to harm you.” 67/b That is, they neither fall short nor spare any effort in doing that which brings you evil and corruption. Harm means evil and corruption. The word khabālan (harm) is in the accusative as the second object, because the verb yaʾlū takes (2) two objects. It was also said that the preposition is omitted: that is, “in causing harm,” just as one says, “I hurt him by striking him.” “They wish you hardship”—that is, they desire for you whatever injury, evil, and ruin causes you distress. Hardship means difficulty. “Hatred has already shown itself”—that is, enmity: the signs of hostility have become apparent—“from their mouths,” through abuse and speaking ill of the Muslims. It was also said: through disclosing the believers’ secrets to the idolaters. “But what their hearts conceal” of enmity and rancour “is greater”—that is, more severe. “We have made the signs clear to you, if only you would understand.”

“Here you are”: hā is a particle drawing attention, and “you” is a pronoun referring to those addressed, namely the men. “Those” is a demonstrative pronoun referring to them; that is, you believers, “love them”—meaning, you love those Jews whom I have forbidden you to take into your confidence—because of the ties between you, such as