And when this statement of encouragement, which includes an allusion to intimidation, necessitates that the wise should hasten to obedience, it became clear that it resulted in some of them disobeying and rejecting this great blessing. They did not limit themselves to abandoning this matter, but they replaced it by entering into it, as in the hadith: "They crawl on their behinds, saying: A grain in a hair," meaning the type of grain in the type of hair, meaning in the desires, our goal is not the barley, which is forgiveness of sins. Al-Harali said: They were commanded to be sincere to Allah, considering the life of their hearts, so they sought wheat, considering the life of their bodies. So Allah, the Exalted, said: "So He replaced" from the replacement, which is the substitution of something in place of something else. End of quote.

"Those who have wronged" and omitted: "from them"; for what will come in Al-A'raf: "a saying," meaning the place of the saying that they were commanded with.

And when the alteration, although it implies change, is true with the slightest change, even if it is in wording, and if the meaning is the same, it indicates that it is opposed to it in such a way that they cannot coexist, as He says: ﴿other than what was said to them﴾. For 'other than' as Al-Harali said (p-400) is a word that implies negation and affirmation of the opposite of what has been negated. And He mentioned, glorified and exalted is He, their deviation from all of that and their preoccupation with their bellies and the immediate pleasures of their world. They sought the food of their bellies, which the decree had already fulfilled, and He showed them the sufficiency of it in the state of wandering by sending down the manna and quails, revealing the dullness of their nature and the predominance of their love for immediate pleasures over them. So they altered the word of monotheism, which is 'there is no deity but Allah,' and it is the 'forgiveness' by seeking wheat. ﴿And if they had upheld the Torah and the Gospel and what was revealed to them from their Lord, they would have eaten from above them and from beneath their feet﴾ [Al-Ma'idah: 66] (p-401) ﴿And if the people of the towns had believed and been conscious of Allah, We would have opened up to them blessings from the heavens and the earth﴾ [Al-A'raf: 96]. 'Whoever is preoccupied with My remembrance from asking Me, I will give him better than what is given to those who ask.' It has ended. And it clarified that He specifically reproached those who altered as a blessing from Him, even though He has the right to encompass all. So He said ﴿Then We sent down﴾, meaning by Our greatness because of that ﴿upon those who wronged﴾, meaning specifically ﴿a punishment﴾. Al-Harali said: it is the severest of punishments, and what is also caused by it is called a punishment from what must (p-402) be refrained from, and refraining is stopping the animals from their transgressions. It has ended. And when the sending down implies the heavens, He affirmed it in glorification of it by saying: ﴿from the heavens because﴾, meaning because of what ﴿they were transgressing﴾, meaning they were renewing their departure from obedience to disobedience at all times. So in His implication that they return to obedience after departing from it, this necessitates that they would wrong themselves more severely than that, as will come. Al-Harali said: Truly, it is obligatory upon whoever enters from the gate of a mountain or a village to say at its entrance: 'there is no deity but Allah,' so that his past sins may be forgiven. It is as if the remembrance of Allah at the gate of the city and the valley is a means of purification for that entrance. So whoever does not enter it while remembering, enters it as a sinner ﴿And do not eat from that upon which the name of Allah has not been mentioned, for indeed it is a transgression﴾ [Al-An'am: 121]. Therefore, their mention in the verse concluded with transgression. It has ended.