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The heretics took issue with His statement:
“By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists.”
…
As for His words,
“By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists” (Q 6:23),
the matter is that when those idolaters saw how Allah pardons the people of pure monotheism, they would say to one another, “If we are questioned, we will say, ‘We were not polytheists.’”2 Yet when Allah gathers them together, and gathers
(2) Al-Suyuti, may Allah have mercy on him, reports that Abd b. Humayd, Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ibn Jarir, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abi Hatim and Abu Shaykh all transmit from Mujahid, regarding the divine words: wa-llahi rabbina ma kunna mushrikin ("By Allah, our Lord, we were not idolaters"). Mujahid said: This is the remark the polytheists will make when they see that other sins are being forgiven while Allah does not forgive a mushrik, as in the verse: unzur kayfa kathabu ‘ala-… ("See how they have lied against…").
شك الزنادقة في قوله:
{وَاللَّهِ رَبِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِكِينَ}
...
أما قوله:
{وَاللَّهِ رَبِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِكِينَ}
[الأنعام: ٢٣]
وذلك أن هؤلاء المشركين إذا رأوا ما يتجاوز الله عن أهل التوحيد يقول بعضهم لبعض: إذا سألنا نقول: لم نكن مشركين٢، فلما جمعهم الله، وجمع
٢ قال السيوطي رحمه الله: وأخرج عبد بن حميد وابن أبي شيبة وابن جرير وابن المنذر وابن أبي حاتم وأبو الشيخ عن مجاهد في قوله: {وَاللَّهِ رَبِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِكِينَ} قال: قول أهل الشرك حين رأوا الذنوب تغفر، ولا يغفر الله لمشرك: {انظُرْ كَيْفَ كَذَبُوا عَلَى