And when it became established by what was informed of His wondrous signs in the spread of His creations that His greatness is beyond the grasp of imaginations and that it retreats, humbled, before the openings of understanding, he was astonished by the audacity against Him, by which the state of the ignorant among the Arabs equaled that of the scholars from the People of the Book. This was a rebuke for them and a deterrent from them, for there is no one to carry them to satisfaction for themselves by descending from the peak of knowledge to the depths of the people of ignorance except by following desires. So he said: ﴿And those who do not know said﴾, meaning: they have no knowledge among the Arabs. ﴿If only﴾, meaning: why not, ﴿Allah would speak to us﴾, meaning: His speech would exist for us regarding what He has of all attributes (p-135) ﴿or a sign would come to us﴾, meaning: according to our proposal, counting what was given to them from the signs - despite what is in it from the sign of the Qur'an which no sign can compare to at all - as non-existent.

And when their saying was deserving of not being believed, he alerted to it by saying: ﴿Thus﴾, meaning: the matter is as we mentioned about them. And when it was as if it was said: Has such a thing ever occurred? It was said: Yes, something even more astonishing occurred, which is that ﴿Those said﴾. And when the intention was some of those who preceded, he included the preposition and said: ﴿Before them﴾, from those attributed to knowledge from the People of the Book, ﴿like their saying﴾. Then he explained it by saying: ﴿Their hearts are alike﴾ in this, even though they are different in terms of knowledge. And in that is consolation for the Prophet ﷺ that just as he was opposed, so too were those before him opposed. And when that was expected, the listener anticipated the news about the clarification, so it was as if it was said: Did they say that out of ignorance or stubbornness? It was said: Rather, out of stubbornness, for we ﴿have certainly clarified the signs﴾ in every sign in the clear Book that is heard and the wise Book that is seen. And when the clarification occurs specifically for the people of certainty, he said: ﴿For a people who are certain﴾. And in it is a call (p-136) for the doubter to engage in the causes of certainty, which is the purity of knowledge from murkiness through the paths of doubt by the gathering of the witnesses of hearing and sight. Al-Harali said: And in it is an indication of what the Arabs have attained of certainty, as the master of the Arabs, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said: If the veil were lifted, I would not increase in certainty. This is a support for what is hidden from the realm of the unseen upon the apparent realm of the kingdom, completing the understanding of this clear statement which Allah has taken upon Himself and whom He has chosen, which is encompassed by the following of the pronoun 'clear'; and in the equality of the scholar and the ignorant after the clarification is evidence for the content of what preceded it in that what was intended was accomplished.