And when he urged to draw near by it, its name being mentioned upon it, and it was among the noble qualities of character, most of them would do it. They would sprinkle the house and similar places with the blood of their sacrifices, and they would cut the meat and place it around, claiming that this was a means of drawing near. Some of this was an ancient legislation, and Allah, glorified and exalted is He, alerted to its abrogation by pointing out that the intended purpose of it is its spirit, not its form. He said: ﴿It will not reach﴾ meaning it will not attain, reach, or achieve.

And when the context was for urging to draw near to Him, glorified and exalted is He, it was more appropriate to precede His name over the doer to hasten in negating what might be imagined of any benefit or harm. So He said, expressing with the proper name that protects from association in every regard: ﴿Allah﴾ meaning the pleasure of the King who possesses the attributes of perfection, so no benefit or harm can reach Him. ﴿The meat of them﴾ meaning the edible ones, ﴿and their blood﴾ meaning the spilled ones. ﴿But what reaches Him is piety﴾ meaning the work of the heart, which is the quality intended to protect its possessor from the wrath of Allah. It is that which has taken hold of his heart until it led him to comply with the commands that are the ends of that, which occurs ﴿from you﴾ carrying towards drawing near by which he will have the spirit of acceptance, achieving what is hoped for. Al-Razi said in Al-Lawa'ih: This is evidence that pure intention is better than the prescribed actions - it has ended. So if the intention reaches Him, glorified and exalted is He, before the action, then the morsel is given, 'So He nurtures it as one of you nurtures his young until it becomes like a mountain.' 'And the blood fell from him in a place.' So the negation is for a form that has no spirit, and the affirmation is for the essence with the spirit. Thus, intention can benefit without action, as he ﷺ said in the Battle of Tabuk, the meaning of which is: 'Indeed, in Medina there are men whom we did not settle in a place nor crossed a valley except that they were with us, held back by excuse.' And action does not benefit without intention, and intention is what benefits the reward eternally, and Allah is the grantor of success. Then He repeated the alertness to the greatness of its subjugation, alerting to what He has made obligatory upon them by saying: ﴿Similarly﴾ meaning the great subjugation ﴿He has subjugated﴾ meaning Allah, the possessor of attributes of perfection ﴿for you﴾ by His greatness and His independence from you ﴿that you may glorify﴾.

And when He mentioned glorification, He depicted it with the greatest name, saying: ﴿Allah﴾ and glorification was included in the act of gratitude. So the intended meaning was: Grateful to Him ﴿for what He has guided you﴾ meaning for your guidance to Him and the great matters He has guided you to.

And when the religion cannot stand except with warning and glad tidings, and the context was for the sake of what has preceded from the rites of Hajj, and the signs of the pilgrimage and the sacrifice - the glad tidings are more appropriate, He mentioned it indicating the warning with the conjunction to allow that the intended meaning is: So warn, O you who call out to the wrongdoers: ﴿And give glad tidings to the good-doers﴾ meaning those who have established goodness in their actions in form and meaning.