And when He established His greatness in this world and the Hereafter, which is a reason to follow Him, He made a clear command regarding it. This is a reminder of the increase of His greatness, by a command that is distant in rank from all the other attributes by which He has been praised. This is because He has become a model for the best of the children of Adam. He indicated this with a particle of delay that denotes the high rank of Him who commanded following Him in what He has prepared, from what He commanded regarding monotheism and the clear, easy path. So He said - glorified and exalted is He -: "Then We revealed"; meaning: then We increased Him in glorification and majesty by revealing to you, while you are the noblest of creation. He explained the revelation by His saying - exalted and mighty is He - as an encouragement to receive this revelation, with the best reception, by following the greatest father: "That you should follow"; meaning: with all your effort and the utmost of your determination.

And when the intended meaning is the essence of the religion and the goodness of adhering to it, with the ease of submission and detachment from all falsehood, and the call with gentleness, along with patience, and the repetition of presenting the proofs, and all that the pure intellect and sound nature call to, He expressed this with the term 'millah'; so He said (the Most High): "The millah of Ibrahim"; and there is no distance in understanding that this also refers to migration.

And when the hanifiyyah is the noblest of the morals of Ibrahim - peace be upon him - it was intended specifically; He made it clear by saying (the Most High): "Hanifan"; meaning: the state of you, or his state, is one of strong attraction to the true evidence. He encouraged the Arabs towards monotheism and deterred them from polytheism by His saying (the Most High): "And he was not"; meaning: in any way of the ways; "of the polytheists."