[And] when the signs became clear to every scholar and ignorant person, the religion reached a point where no fair-minded person needed coercion in it. So He said: ﴿There is no compulsion in religion﴾. And al-Harali said: When He, glorified and exalted is He, transferred the rank of discourse from the level of command and prohibition and limits, which the establishment of the upright religion is based upon, which concealed from them the matter of greatness and the overpowering majesty that supports the people of the kingdom and dominion in what they are engaged in, He elevated the rank of the religion of Allah, the Pleasing, in which there is no ambiguity, no veil over it, and no deviation in it. It is His informing, glorified and exalted is He, His servant about His apparent sustenance in every beginning, in every beginning, and upon every beginning, and He manifested from every beginning, and His hidden greatness that no name refers to, nor can it be represented by any form. It is the ink of every ink, as He, glorified and exalted is He, clarified and announced by placing the hidden coercion in its position in the upright religion regarding what it contains of compelling souls against their will in what He has decreed upon them, which is the knowledge of their punishment and the sign of their torment. So the knowledge of Allah's matter in His sustenance and greatness was taken away by the aversion of the soul by witnessing all that occurs for it and against it.

(p-41) So those are the ones whom Allah will replace their evil deeds with good ones, because of what their hearts have felt from the water of the oneness flowing beneath the differences of the fruits of their deeds. Thus, its sweetness and bitterness became sweet by that oneness, just as it is said about the red sulfur that transforms the essence of base things into a higher state. End.

Then He, glorified and exalted is He, justified the negation of coercion from Him by saying: ﴿The right guidance has become distinct﴾. Al-Harali said: It is the good conduct in the matter and the establishment upon it according to what is established and endures ﴿from misguidance﴾, which is the bad conduct in the matter and its execution upon what has a bad outcome. End. That is, every person of understanding knows that Islam is entirely good and everything else is entirely evil, due to what has become clear from the signs. And it has become such that everyone who wishes to benefit himself hastens to it, and the mightiest of tyrants submit to him, so it is as if, due to the strength of his appearance and the dominance of his light, coercion has been completely removed from him. (p-42) Because coercion is compelling someone to what has not appeared in it a reason for benefit, so there remains no barrier except for the vile desire of the soul in its animalistic and satanic lusts. ﴿So whoever﴾, that is, this became a reason for whoever ﴿disbelieves in the tyrant﴾, which is his own self and what it calls to and inclines towards by its vile nature. And al-Harali said: It is what has been excessive in the removal from the limiting boundary that prevents from destruction, a form of exaggeration and an increase in ending from which tyranny arises. End.

﴿And he believes in Allah﴾ meaning the Sovereign, the Most High, inclining with the intellect which is all good for what he has seen by its light from the decisive evidence and the clear proofs. He continues in that by what the form of the present tense has indicated from 'whoever disbelieves' and 'believes'. ﴿Then he has clung﴾ to a clear insight from him. ﴿To the firmest handhold﴾ meaning that there is no doubt that it is the most trustworthy of means for his salvation by what he has grasped with his hand and has submitted to his Lord.

﴿And whoever submits his face to Allah﴾ [Luqman: 22] and the handhold is that by which the bags and similar things are secured, by intertwining them with one another in a manner that does not separate one from the other except by breaking its end. So if one handhold separates, all of it separates. And the firmest is the form of 'fa'la' for exaggeration from the trustworthiness of the severity of what is feared to weaken. Then he clarified its firmness by saying: ﴿There is no separation for it﴾ meaning there is no yielding in loosening, breaking, or going away. Ibn al-Qatta' said: 'I broke the thing' means 'I split it', and 'I loosened the knot' means 'I untied it', and 'the thing went away from it' means 'it departed'. Al-Harali said: 'From the breaking' which is the separation of the handholds from one another, meaning this handhold has no dissolution at all. This is a representation of the known by observation and the argument by what is perceived and sensed so that the listener can imagine it as if he is looking at it with his own eyes, thus his belief in it is judged and his joy in it is exalted. It is known from this that there remains no obstacle to entering this religion except fate and destiny. So whoever has happiness decreed for him, Allah, glorified and exalted is He, has provided him with means that will bring him out from darkness into light. And whoever is overwhelmed by misery, the devils are set upon him and have brought him out from the light of fitrah into the darkness of disbelief and confusion.

And since both faith and disbelief are prior in saying, action, and belief, he said encouraging them and warning against abandoning them: ﴿And Allah﴾ who has the attributes of (p-44) perfection ﴿is All-Hearing﴾ meaning of what is said that indicates faith ﴿All-Knowing﴾ meaning of what is done or concealed of disbelief and tyranny and is punished for it. And perhaps in the verse there is a reference to what was mentioned at the beginning of the surah regarding the disbelievers that it is the same for them whether they are warned or not, and to the hypocrites and the abhorrence of what they are upon which is in the utmost contradiction to what its proofs have become clearer than the sun. It indicates permission to turn away from the hypocrites.