Commentary
So when it was established that He is the One who began creation, it was established by that that He is capable of its return. He said: ﴿To Him﴾ meaning specifically ﴿is your return﴾ meaning your return and the place of your return and its time while you are ﴿all together﴾ no one among you will be absent. His promise to you regarding that has been fulfilled ﴿the promise of Allah﴾ meaning the One who has all perfection ﴿is true﴾. This is a reasoning for His worship due to His oneness. They will live after death and will be gathered to the place of Allah's reward for them at the time He has decreed for them, and He will remove what they had of ability in this world. It is known with certainty that the Messenger is necessary, so prepare for the meeting with this greatest King with all that the Messenger ﷺ has commanded you. Then He clarified the indication of His power, including an explanation of His wisdom. He said, reasoning for the necessity of returning to Him, confirming their count among those who deny the beginning due to their denial of what must follow from the completeness of power over resurrection and others: ﴿Indeed, He begins creation﴾ meaning He creates it the first creation. This attribute of His is continuously renewed in relation to the ongoing process. ﴿Then He returns it﴾ to establish justice in His creation by fulfilling for whoever worships Him His promise to honor him and humiliate his enemy, and that is the meaning of His saying: ﴿To reward﴾.
And since it is in the context of resurrection, He prioritized the people of reward and began with their nobles, saying: ﴿Those who believed﴾ meaning they established this description which is the solid foundation for every good deed ﴿and did righteous deeds﴾ meaning they confirmed their faith by doing ﴿righteous deeds﴾ as a reward that will be ﴿with justice﴾. [And He limited it to justice without excess to understand that leaving out the filler is detrimental to the deed which is the focus of the wisdom that is the greatest benefit of the Surah]. And the reward is: giving according to the deed what it necessitates of good or evil. If the giving were a beginning, it would not be a reward, and if it were something that the deed does not necessitate, it would not be a reward at all. And justice is: fairness.
And those who disbelieved, meaning: they have established this description for themselves in terms of the recompense based on their entitlement. "A drink of boiling water," meaning heated by fire to the utmost degree of heating. "And a painful punishment," meaning of extreme pain. "Because they were," meaning by nature and disposition, "disbelievers." For indeed, their punishment is among the greatest delights of the believers who opposed them in it, glorified and exalted is He. "So today, those who believed will laugh at the disbelievers" [Al-Mutaffifin: 34]. "On thrones, they will look on" [Al-Mutaffifin: 35]. "Have the disbelievers been recompensed for what they used to do?" [Al-Mutaffifin: 36]. And as if He said: "It begins," in the present tense, not as He said in another verse: "As He began you, you will return" [Al-A'raf: 29], narrating the state and depicting it, alerting them to contemplate what is renewed in its creation, so that it would be more compelling for them to imagine the ability to resurrect. Al-Rummani said: And the verse contains the explanation of what is required by the establishment in this world of renewing the creation for recompense; because there must be, along with the establishment of good and evil, encouragement and intimidation, with which punishment is not safe from eternity, so that the accountable person may be deterred from evil from the state of permissibility for him, raising the burden from him. - End of quote.
Indeed, what has been mentioned clarifies what has been determined throughout the surah by its repetition for its clarification and affirmation - that its purpose is to describe the Book with what definitively indicates that it is from Him, glorified is He, and by His permission, for there is nothing hidden from His knowledge, nor is there anything close to His power, nor is there anyone who dares against His greatness. And that He is complete in power, unique in creation and command, so He is capable of resurrection as He was capable of beginning. And that the intended purpose of the Book is the glad tidings and warning for success at the resurrection and salvation from the calamities of the Day of Gathering, while He, glorified is He, has decreed judgment, so the clear verses and signs do not benefit those who have been judged with misery and decreed with misguidance. And that is from His wisdom and justice, so it is necessary to submit to His command and to cut off aspirations from anything else.
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