Muhammad, from ‘Ikrima or Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ‘Abbās:

‘Indeed, those who disbelieve’ means those who disbelieve in what has been sent down to you, even if they say, ‘We believe in what came to us before you.’ ‘It makes no difference to them whether you warn them or not; they will not believe’ means that they have disbelieved in the mention of you in their own scriptures and denied the covenant taken from them. Thus, they have disbelieved both in what has come to you and in what they possess of the revelation brought to them by others before you. How, then, will they heed any warning or admonition from you?”

It is therefore clear that they do not heed the warning because they disbelieve in what they possess and in the truth that has come to them. Yet it is well known that many of them subsequently repented and believed.

It is also reported from al-Rabī‘ ibn Anas, from Abū al-‘Āliya, who said: “Two verses concern the leaders of the confederates: ‘Indeed, those who disbelieve—it makes no difference to them whether you warn them or not; they will not believe.’”

He said: “They are those whom Allah mentions in this verse: ‘Have you not seen those who exchanged Allah’s favor for disbelief and led their people into the abode of ruin?’”

(I say: He identified them as the leaders of the confederates because they led their followers astray and brought them into the abode of ruin. Yet most of the leaders of the confederates at the Battle of the Trench embraced Islam and became good Muslims, including ‘Ikrima ibn Abī Jahl, Safwān ibn Umayya, Suhayl ibn ‘Amr, and Abū Sufyān. Some of these embraced Islam in the year of the Conquest; they were those granted amnesty. Others embraced Islam before that. The other confederate group was Ghatafān, and they too embraced Islam.