'The One who fed them' means Quraysh by bringing provisions to Mecca during the two journeys, safe from being attacked. And by destroying those who intended to demolish the House, which is their system. Feeding that begins 'from hunger' means great hunger in which others from the Arabs were involved, or they were in it before that because their land is not fertile. They are exposed to the poverty that arises from hunger. So that alone was enough for them, and no one shared in their sufficiency. It is not from gratitude to associate them in His worship, nor is it from righteousness towards their father Ibrahim, blessings and peace be upon him, who prayed for them for sustenance and strongly forbade the worship of idols. And He did not say, 'He satisfied them' because not all of them were satisfied, and because whoever among them was satisfied sought more than what he had. 'And the belly of the son of Adam is not filled except with dust.'

And when he mentioned the reason for establishing the apparent, he mentioned the reason for establishing life with the blessing of the hidden. He said: ﴿And He made them secure﴾, meaning specifically for them ﴿from fear﴾, meaning a very intense fear from the companions of the elephant and from what could befall them from being taken by killing, looting, and raids, and with safety from the plague by the supplication of Ibrahim, blessings and peace be upon him, [and from the plague and the Dajjal by the assurance of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him]. And from that, the bestowal of what He specifically granted them from the security was caused. He knew [that] the end of it is a reason for its beginning, and it is permissible that their security for the city occurred first, and Allah protected it for them from what was mentioned. So that would be a cause for the security, and its beginning would be a reason for its end. The two ends have met, and the two seas have converged. Just as the end of every surah meets with its beginning, so too the end of the great Qur'an meets with its beginning concerning these nine surahs, the first of which is counted from the end to it. For the result of it is the favor upon Quraysh by assisting them in trade, securing for them the journey therein and striking in the land because of it (p-268) and their being specifically commanded to worship the One who bestowed upon them the Sacred House and brought them sustenance and security with it. And one of the greatest objectives of repentance - the correspondence to this being the ninth from the first - is the disavowal of every renegade, and that doing so would be a reason for unity after it was thought to be a reason for division. And he mentioned the virtues of the House and those who are fit to serve it, and the success in its security and blessing, and the good tidings of wealth in a manner greater than obtaining it through trade, more splendid and more magnificent, more complete and more abundant, more radiant and more glorious, and more noble and more esteemed, by His saying, the Most High: ﴿It is not for the polytheists to populate the mosques of Allah while witnessing against themselves﴾ [At-Tawbah: 17] and His saying, the Most High: ﴿And if you fear poverty, Allah will enrich you from His bounty﴾ [At-Tawbah: 28]. Thus, it is known with clear knowledge that He, glorified and exalted is He, legislated in responding to the beginning of the surah of Quraysh, those whom Allah honored by sending down the Qur'an in their language and sending the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, to them just as He honored them by building the House concerning them, and magnifying their wealth and security. And one of the greatest correspondences in that is the fact that the first surah in which He began responding to the beginning of the surah is very similar to the surah that corresponds to it, to the extent that in each of them, along with the one before it, they are like one surah. For indeed, At-Tawbah with Al-Anfal is likewise, until Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, said that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, died (p-269) and did not clarify its matter. So it was not established for him that it is independent of it, and for that reason, he did not write between them a line of 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.' And this one that is from the end is established as independent, along with what has been reported of it being with the one before it as one surah in the mushaf of Ubayy, may Allah be pleased with him. And the recitation of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, [of them] in a manner that indicates that, as previously mentioned, suggests that the latter is clearer than the former. And one of the strangest things is that the two surahs that precede the two surahs of correspondence between their matters are opposites. The first in the end, which is the elephant, Allah honored Quraysh in it by destroying [the people of] the Gospel, and the first in the beginning, which is Al-Anfal, Allah honored them in it by the victory of the people of the Qur'an over them by destroying their tyrants. So that was a reason for breaking their strength and the fall of their pride leading to their happiness. And he knew that the disavowal and others were only done to honor them because they are the ones specifically intended by the sending and the first intention of the sending, and the people are for them followers, just as all the messengers are followers of the opening and sealing messenger who was honored by being sent to him, blessings and peace be upon him. And the number of the nine indicates that Quraysh are worthy of connecting to the ascent of secrets in the kingdom to [the ark] of the ninth, which is the Throne, which is the foundation of the law. They ascend with the secrets of the law - of which the greatest is prayer - from the lower to the higher (p-270) from both ends together, just as He descends upon them with blessings from both sides. And if you add the first nine to the other, it would be eighteen, indicating the units of the prayers, including the Witr, and to the appearance of the religion fully [over] the majority of the corners of the earth as it was in the year twenty-eight, which is the eighteenth year after the death of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and that was during the caliphate of Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, for in it the kingdom of Kisra had been torn apart and weakened greatly, as well as the king of the Romans with what had occurred from the complete downfall of the matter of the Copts. And among the remarkable indications is that if you look at the descent of Al-Bara'ah, you would find it in the year nine of the Hijrah during the Battle of Tabuk and after returning from it. So its being the ninth and its descent in the ninth year indicates that the religion will prevail over every opponent after nine years, which is the eighth year after the death of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, in the midst of the caliphate of Al-Faruq when the Muslims prevailed over the Persians and the Romans, killing their men and seizing their wealth, just as it had appeared at the time of its descent upon the idol worshippers of the Arabs. And it is strange that the story of the elephant was the year of the birth of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, for it was forty years before the prophethood by the number of the words of the two surahs: [the elephant -] and Quraysh, for the elephant is twenty-three and Quraysh is seventeen. And that - and Allah knows best - is an indication that the beginning of security - by their destruction and the satiation by plundering what was with them of their wealth and goods - was for his birth, blessings and peace be upon him (p-271) and the honoring of existence by his existence. And that would be apparent just as the reason - which is his existence - is apparent, and that the center of it would be by his prophethood, blessings and peace be upon him, and that would be hidden just as the reason - which is the revelation - is hidden. Then the security of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them, in the eighth year corresponds to the number of words of the two basmalahs by the hand of the Negus, the king of Abyssinia, for the security was first by their destruction. And if you add to it eleven pronouns - seven in the elephant and four in Quraysh - it would be fifty-nine, corresponding to the year of the birth in the sixth year of the Hijrah, and in it was the Umrah of Hudaybiyyah, which is the hidden causal opening. And to that, he indicated, blessings and peace be upon him, by saying in the kneeling of his noble she-camel when it knelt, and the companions, may Allah be pleased with them, said: 'The Quswa has become stubborn - meaning it has halted:'

'It did not fail, but the keeper of the elephant held it back.' And in it, the Surah of Al-Fath was revealed. It was the cause of great security and wealth. After it, in its year, there was the sending to the kings of the cities, and the opening of Khaybar, and the spreading of the mention of Islam in all regions. Likewise, after it, before the Umrah of Al-Qadiyyah, was the Islam of Amr ibn al-As at the hands of the Negus when he asked him to give him Amr ibn Umayyah al-Dhamri, may Allah be pleased with him, to kill him. This was when the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, sent him to the Negus, may Allah be pleased with both of them, calling him to Islam. The Negus denied this to Ibn al-As and bore witness to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding the message and commanded him to believe in him. So he did, and the king of Abyssinia, by the prayer of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, was saved and guided, in contrast to what had happened to the king of Abyssinia at his birth, for he was doomed and falling into Hell. If you consider from the year of the building of the Kaaba in the twenty-fifth year from his birth, the year fifty-nine was the thirty-first after the Hijrah. It was the year of the eradication of the kingdom of the Persians by the killing of their last king, Yazdgerd. The Persians are those who removed the Abyssinians from the land of Yemen and purified the land of the Arabs from them. Perhaps the division of the two Surahs into twenty-three and seventeen is an indication that this noble birth, by which the Kaaba was guarded, and security and honor were attained by its blessing, was adopted by the Kaaba and renewed after twenty-five years from his birth. They said: Its building and his age was twenty-five years. Perhaps it was at the end of the twenty-fourth year. Perhaps the story of the elephant was around a year from the time of the birth. By it, at the time of the building, Allah united the Quraysh after they had been in severe enmity and had agreed on war regarding the Black Stone, who would place it in its place until Allah reconciled between them by him, blessings and peace be upon him. He placed it with his noble hand in a cloth, and he commanded them, and all the tribes held its edges. Then they raised it until they were level with its place, and he took it, blessings and peace be upon him, and placed it in its place. Thus, the honor was specifically for him in the reconciliation and the building. This also indicates that he would remain in prophethood for twenty-three years, then Allah would take him, glorified and exalted is He, after Allah had made the plots of all the disbelievers in misguidance from the worshippers of idols, the Persians, the Romans, and others, by what Allah opened for him from the Arabian Peninsula, by which Allah united their words until they flowed over others. No one matched them in battle or negotiated with them in fighting and contesting. Perhaps the indication of the Quraysh being seventeen words is that he, blessings and peace be upon him, after seventeen years from the building of the House, Allah would send him, glorified and exalted is He, for the matter of Quraysh with the worship that is the greatest, which is prayer, the most important of the obligatory acts, which are seventeen rak'ahs, in gratitude for the blessing of the One who made them safe from fear and fed them from hunger with the greatest act of worship. And that the beginning of the unity of Quraysh with the strength close to action after the great visible scattering, and Allah made the plots of the disbelievers in misguidance would be in the seventeenth year of prophethood. That was the year four of the Hijrah, for in it was the expulsion of Banu al-Nadir from the noble city and the breaking of Quraysh's promise in place of the promise and their weakness in meeting the army of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. And shortly after was the battle of the confederates. For this reason, the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said after their departure:

'Now we will invade them and they will not invade us' - meaning that the pride of Satan among them and the zeal of ignorance have begun to decline due to the end of their strength in the falsehood that was the cause of their apparent honor, which is humiliation in the unseen. This was the beginning of their honor in the unseen, which is their humiliation before the people of Islam in the apparent. After the battle of the confederates, there was the battle of Banu Qurayzah. If you add to the words the four pronouns, it would be twenty-one, corresponding to the year eight of the Hijrah, which is the year of the greatest victory, in which the greatest unity occurred between Quraysh and their security and wealth, which Allah promised them in the corresponding surah - which is At-Tawbah - with the unity of all the Arabs and their emergence to unite their word against the jihad of the Persians, Romans, and Copts, and their taking of their lands, and their submission to their treasures and their control over their women and children. So glorified is He whose words these are, and exalted is His status, and mighty are His aims.