And when He described His servants, glorified and exalted is He, as having adorned themselves with the roots of virtues and having removed themselves from the mothers of vices, and having desired repentance, for indeed, man, due to his inadequacy, does not cease from deficiency. He had praised them after the first of their attributes with forbearance from ignorance, praising them before the latter of their praises. He followed their abandonment of fornication with the avoidance of vain speech, which is the greatest precursor to fornication. He said: ﴿And those who do not witness﴾, meaning they do not attend deviation with desire, as fire does, from which the devil is. ﴿Falsehood﴾, meaning the speech that deviates from truth, whether it is a lie or something close to it, let alone that they utter it or acknowledge it. Ibn Jarir said: The essence of falsehood is the embellishment of something and describing it contrary to its attribute, until it is imagined by whoever hears it or sees it that it is contrary to what it is. Thus, it is the camouflage of falsehood with what suggests that it is truth. And polytheism may enter into that, as it appears good to its people until they think it is truth, while it is false. And singing also enters into it, as it is something that is pleasing with the modulation of the voice until the listener finds pleasure in hearing it. And lying also enters into it by the embellishment of its possessor until he thinks it is truth.

And He added to it what is more general than it, saying: ﴿And when they pass by vain speech﴾, meaning that which ought to be discarded and invalidated, whether it is from the valley of lies or from the frivolity that is of no benefit. Ibn Jarir said: It is in the speech of the Arabs, any speech or action that is false, having no reality or foundation, or that which is deemed reprehensible.

﴿They pass by with dignity﴾, meaning commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, if a matter or prohibition is related to them, by gesture or statement, according to what they see as beneficial, or they turn away if nothing of that is suitable to provoke a greater corruption than that or something similar, as a mercy to themselves and to others. As for their presence for that and their silence, no, for indeed, gazing at everything that the Shari'ah has not permitted makes them partners of its doers in sin, for their presence and gaze are evidence of their approval of it, and a cause for its existence and increase.