Commentary
And when his advice was completed and his cup was raised by conveying to them what was most important to them, had they known its outcome in the eternal life and everlasting elevation. He turned to their need, enabling what he mentioned and affirming what he decided. He called them with the tool indicating that what follows is a speech of great significance for their souls to gather to hear what is conveyed to them from the expression. He said: "O companions of the prison," meaning that in it fortunes are removed and the soul experiences humiliation and softness in the heart, so affection is released therein.
And when there was in the answer something that would distress the baker, he was vague to allow each one to assume that he was the winner. If he compelled him to specify, that would be an excuse for him to deviate from the more appropriate. He said: "As for one of you," and he is the cupbearer, so he summarizes and brings closer: "he will give his lord to drink," meaning his master whom he serves, "wine," as for the other, he is the baker.
And when the one who has the power to be crucified is indeed the king, he built for the acted upon his saying: "he will be crucified" and "the birds will eat from his head." The verse is from the intertwining: mentioning the one who is necessarily safe and near first as evidence of the injury secondly, and the necessary injury secondly as evidence of safety first. The explanation of his expression from the Torah will come, as if it were said: Look carefully at what you say! It was narrated that they said: We saw nothing, we were just playing. He said, indicating by the passive form to the greatness of Allah and the ease of matters for Him: "The matter has been decreed" and he clarified by saying: "which in it" [meaning -] not in other than it, "you seek to inquire" meaning you ask for a ruling in it acting upon the fatwa. So you asked about its interpretation, which is the expression of your visions, whether you denied or affirmed, I did not say it out of ignorance or mistake. And how beautiful is the assignment of this established knowledge to the conclusion of the previous verse by negating knowledge from the majority, and the one: is the specific from the added to it by an ambiguous [for it -] like the description of the added, and not likewise "some" so it does not confirm: I saw one of the two men - except by one of them, unlike "some" and the fatwa: is the answer by the ruling of the meaning, which is different from the answer by its cause - as mentioned by al-Rummani. And perhaps their visions indicate what the king's vision indicates, for the juice refers to the green ears of grain and the fat cows, because it would only be from abundance, and the bread - which the birds have taken and the spirits of its owner have moved - refers to the dry and lean ones - and Allah knows best.
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