“When it is said to them, ‘Come, and the Messenger of Allah will seek forgiveness for you,’ they turn their heads away, and you see them turning away in arrogance. It is the same whether you seek forgiveness for them or do not seek forgiveness for them: Allah will never forgive them. Indeed, Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.”

“When it is said” to these hypocrites, “Come, and the Messenger of Allah will seek forgiveness for you” for what you have done, so that your condition may improve and your deeds may be accepted, they utterly refuse. They “turn their heads away,” refusing to ask the Messenger to supplicate for them; “and you see them turning away” from the truth out of hatred for it, “in arrogance”—too proud to follow it, out of insolence and obstinacy.

Such is their condition when they are called to ask the Messenger to supplicate for them. This is part of Allah’s kindness to His Messenger and the honor He bestowed upon him: they did not come to him for him to seek forgiveness on their behalf. For ⦗865⦘ whether he seeks forgiveness for them or does not seek forgiveness for them, Allah will never forgive them. This is because they are defiantly disobedient people who have departed from obedience to Allah and preferred disbelief to faith. The Messenger’s plea for forgiveness would therefore not benefit them, even if he were to seek forgiveness for them, just as Allah Most High says: “Seek forgiveness for them, or do not seek forgiveness for them. Even if you seek forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will never forgive them.” “Indeed, Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.”