“Male polytheists” and “female polytheists,” using nouns; and a noun is more emphatic than a verb.

The second approach is to say:

If the term “polytheists” in Surah al-Baqarah includes them, just as He described them as associating partners with Him, this can be understood by distinguishing between the term’s meaning when used alone and when mentioned alongside another term. When “polytheists” is used alone, it includes the People of the Book; when mentioned alongside the People of the Book, it does not include them. A similar distinction has been made regarding the terms “the poor” and “the needy,” and other such terms. On this understanding, the verse in al-Baqarah is general, whereas the other verse is specific, and the specific takes precedence over the general.

(The third approach is to say: The verse in al-Mā’idah abrogates the verse in al-Baqarah, because al-Mā’idah was revealed after al-Baqarah, according to the consensus of the scholars. It is reported in the hadith: “Al-Mā’idah is among . . . (1)