And when the Exalted informed that they abandoned the Sunnah in purifying their souls by following the guidance of the pure ones from their ancestors, and clarified the invalidity of what they are upon now from every angle, and made clear that it is pure misguidance, He indicated that He punished them for that by making them callers to disbelief. For His past Sunnah has preceded, and you will not find any alteration in His Sunnah. Indeed, whoever revives a Sunnah, he will be punished by it through an innovation. Al-Harali said: Because they are interchangeable in religions, like opposites in bodies. So the Exalted said, marveling at them, adding to His saying: "And they said, 'Never will enter..." [Al-Baqarah: 111] "And they said," meaning: the two groups from the People of the Book to the followers of guidance, "Be Jews or Christians, and you will be guided." That is, their committing of falsehood and their following the paths of misguidance was not enough until they called to what they are upon and promised guidance leading to it. So the Exalted commanded him to respond to them that he is following the Sunnah of his father, and he will not be diverted from it as they have diverted. So he said, directing the address to the noblest of His creation due to the high status of what he informs of and the difficulty of adhering to it upon the soul: "Say, 'Rather..." turning away from their words, meaning: it will not be anything of what you mentioned, rather we will be or we will associate with me whoever has completed the people of Islam, "the religion of Ibrahim," associating with it as if we have embodied it. This is a metaphor for not being able to detach from it, and it is more eloquent than if it were said: 'Rather, the people of the religion of Ibrahim.' Al-Harali said: In it is the perfection of the following of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, in his religion with the religion of Ibrahim, peace be upon him, who is the first for the relevance between the first and the last. And it has been mentioned that the religion is what the light of reason has manifested from guidance in the darkness of what people have adhered to from the customs of worldly matters. Thus, the most complete thing that the light of reason has revealed is the religion of Ibrahim, "inclining" meaning: soft, tender, easy, receptive to uprightness, inclined with the call of truth, submissive to it, entrusting his affair to it. Nothing of blindness, density, harshness, or rigidity that necessitates disobedience, arrogance, or tyranny can approach it. This is because the root of "hanifa" in every arrangement revolves around lightness and gentleness. It seems that the primary reality of it is thinness, and this meaning necessitates spreading, shrinking, and inclination. Thus, it necessitates ease of submission and uprightness, and it is revealed in the verse of Al-Imran: "But he was inclining, a Muslim" [Al-Imran: 67]. By this, he deviated from the foundations of the creation in their deviation from the straight path of Islam. Al-Harali said: The hanif is the one who inclines away from the changed customs of the people to what is required by innate disposition, a tenderness of heart towards the truth of his inner feeling.

And when he established Islam for him with the Hanifiyyah, he negated from him others by his saying: ﴿And he was not of the polytheists﴾. Al-Harali said: In this is an indication of the exoneration of his being from the matter of polytheism in the affirmation of matters, actions, and states. It also conveys to him that he is from the matter of Muhammad ﷺ in the perfect finality, just as Muhammad ﷺ is from him in the initial beginning. Allah, the Most High, said to Muhammad ﷺ: ﴿Say, indeed my prayer﴾ [Al-An'am: 162] until His saying: ﴿And I am the first of the Muslims﴾ [Al-An'am: 163]. This is the primacy of the rank of perfection that is specific to him, and whoever is other than him is from it. For the negation of a thing implies exoneration and connection to the established counterpart. So whoever is not, for example, from the disbelievers is from the believers. For if he were the believer, he would have been mentioned with the opposite description of what was negated from him, for in that is the meaning of affirming the description and negating its opposite. And such is abundant in the discourse of the Qur'an. It clarifies who has the description and who is from it. There is a distinction between the preceding and the subsequent in all that comes from this kind. This distinction is apparent for understanding but hidden from the witnesses of the world. For knowledge is to the intellect as the soul is to the self; and understanding is to the intellect as the spirit is to the soul. For understanding has a perception that knowledge does not reach, just as the spirit has a realm that the self cannot attain, due to the self's orientation towards the apparent manifestations and the spirit's direction towards the lofty existence. The end.