[2:91] And when it was said to them, 'Believe in what God has revealed', they said, 'We believe in what was revealed to us', and they disbelieve in what is beyond that; yet it is the truth, confirming what is with them. Say: 'Why then were you slaying the prophets of God formerly, if you were believers?'
The allusion in it is that when it is said to them, 'Recognize the truth of what has been shown to you from the decree of [divine] harmony (min ḥukm al-wifāq) through the recognition of the situation and the establishment of proof,' their lower selves permit some of what they find ambiguous insofar as it agrees with their self-serving desires, and then they disbelieve in what is beyond their worldly concerns. They are at a distance from the elite and are not considered to be among the group of those who have special claim (arbāb al-ikhtiṣāṣ).