And when Allah, the Most High, informed that the disbelievers will be defeated and that they have no supporters, their condition necessitated that they say: How can we be defeated when we are more numerous than the pebbles and stronger in argument than the lions of wickedness? How can we be defeated? Or how can some of us not support one another when among us are kings, princes, nobles, and leaders, while our opponents are few and weak, the people of the dusty land, and those in distress and hardship? So Allah, the Most High, said for the sleepers to awaken from the beds of heedlessness, turning in the vastness of the lands, distracted by what they see and hear of the removal of kingship from the strongest of people and granting it to the weakest of them. They should know that the One who is capable of doing that with some of His enemies is certainly capable of doing it with His allies. Say: 'O Allah,' Al-Harali said: And when this matter is prophecy, then succession, then kingship, it has been arranged with what has preceded from the beginning of the surah regarding the matter of prophecy in the revelation and sending down, and the matter of succession in mentioning the firmly rooted in knowledge who say: 'Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us' [Al-Imran: 8]. This was from the supplication of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, who would recite it in the last unit of the daytime prayer in the last rak'ah of the Maghrib prayer. The mention of the kingship that Allah has granted this nation has been arranged with the heads of those meanings, and He has specified it for those who have been granted kingship, just as He has specified succession for those who are fit for it, just as the final prophecy has been designated for one who carries it other than him. It has ended; He said: 'Say,' meaning, O Muhammad, or O you who believe in us, addressing your Lord, making them hear and turning away from them, and alerting them from the stupor of their heedlessness in their turning towards kings who have nothing in their hands, and their turning away from this Greatest King, who has everything in His hand. Al-Harali said: Due to the elevated status of this surah, there was much addressing of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and the speaker was made to be when there was proximity with him, for the revelation of the Qur'an was for the rectification of what is between the creation and their Lord. The address comes from Allah, glorified and exalted is He, to them directly until it reaches the turning away of those who turn away from it. And what was for the rectification of what is between the nation and its Prophet, Allah conducts the address through his tongue from where they turn towards him in proximity. So when they say a saying that they intend by it, Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: 'Say to them.' And because the Qur'an is recited, the word 'Say' has been established in it.

'O Allah, Master of the Kingdom' means that no one possesses anything of it other than You. Al-Harali said: So he ﷺ was content with the kingdom of his Lord. Whoever among him, his family, his successors, and his companions is of his Islam, his face toward his Lord is the Islam of all the kingdom, from which the honor of this world is for Allah. Therefore, he ﷺ did not pretend to have kingship nor did he take it in its ways, because he was a prophet, a servant, not a prophet-king. He submitted the kingship to Allah. Likewise, his successors submitted the kingship to Allah, so they wore coarse garments and patched clothes, and they limited themselves to a meager livelihood. They were gentle in truth, bore the harshness of the stranger, and followed his trace in servitude. They submitted the kingship to Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and did not dispute with Him anything of it. Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, carried a water skin on his back during his caliphate until he poured it in the house of a woman from the Ansar in the farthest part of the city. When Allah brought about the time of kingship and the days of the caliphate were completed after the time of prophethood, Allah, glorified and exalted is He, manifested kingship in the nation of Muhammad ﷺ. Just as He specified prophethood and imamate for the house of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad ﷺ, He specified the caliphate for the poor among the emigrants. He specified kingship for the freed ones who were the freed ones of Allah and His Messenger, so that each may attain from the mercy of Allah and His grace, which His Prophet ﷺ entrusted to each group according to their closeness to Him, until He specifically advanced Quraysh as they were, then the Arabs as they were, to what the matter became for him after kingship of authority and tyranny to what it will become for him of deception. All of this is granted to whom He grants according to their closeness and distance from Him. 'You give kingship to whom You will' indicates that it is a granting from Allah without strength, dominance, or contention in it. And in the expression 'to whom' for the general public for the wise, it indicates the attainment of kingship by one who is not of its people. The people most distant from it are the Arabs. It indicates that Allah grants the kingship of Persia and Rome to the Arabs as it has occurred from it, and what remains of it will end with whom kingship is attained because of it and based on it from all the nations that entered into this nation from the tribes of the non-Arabs and the types of the people of the regions until the matter ends with Allah stripping kingship from all the people of the earth, then returning it to the Imam of the Arabs, the seal of guidance from his descendants, the seal ﷺ of prophethood from the descendants of Adam. And He will grant them from the ability, as he ﷺ said:

If any of them wished to travel from the east to the west in a single step, he would have done so. Yet, they are not of this world, nor is this world of them. Allah will grant them a dominion from His dominion - a clear guidance for whom He has guided, a manifestation of His secret that He will reveal at the end of the day of this world, so that it connects with the appearance of the King of the Day of Judgment. The dominion is the assumption of the honor of this world and the exclusivity of its goodness. Abu Bakr said to Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, in his will: When you harvest, let your hand refrain from your mouth until the one for whom you have harvested is satisfied. If your soul urges you to partake with them, then share with them without being exclusive to them, and beware of hoarding! For indeed, hoarding destroys the religion of the Imam and spills his blood. The dominion is an assumption of the honor of this world and exclusivity of its goodness and taking a reserve from it.

When they intended to change Umar's attire, may Allah be pleased with him, as he approached Bayt al-Maqdis, he discarded their attire and said: We are a people whom Allah has honored with Islam! So we will not seek honor through anything else. Whoever seeks honor through the status of this world is a king to the extent that he seeks from its honor, whether that fortune is little or great. He is with it among the followers of the kings of this world. Likewise, whoever seeks exclusivity of its goodness and takes a reserve from it, each one will attain from the dominion and will be among the followers of kings according to what he attains and desires from that until he ends up with the gathering of the group to which he inclines. Whoever humbles himself, diminishes himself, and relies on Allah will be resurrected with the prophets, messengers, and caliphs. Just as whoever seeks honor through this world and hoards and reserves from it will be gathered with the kings and sultans. Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, once sat with Salman, Ka'b, and a group, may Allah be pleased with them, and said: Inform me, am I a caliph or a king? Salman, may Allah be pleased with him, said to him: O Commander of the Believers! If you take a dirham from this wealth and place it in a manner that is not its right, then you are a king. If you do not place it except in its right, then you are a caliph. Ka'b said: May Allah have mercy on Him! I did not think that anyone would know the difference between a caliph and a king other than me. Adhering to the bitterness of justice and preferring others is caliphate and a following in its path. Attaining the sweetness of exclusivity of the immediate goodness and wealth is kingship and a bias towards its followers. This is the end.

And in the precedence of giving over taking, there is an indication that the caller should begin with encouragement. And 'and takes' refers to taking with severity and force.

﴿The dominion is for whom You will﴾ and in it is an indication that if the supplication with gentleness does not succeed, then one should resort to intimidation. On this basis, he highlighted his saying: ﴿And You honor whom You will﴾ meaning His honoring, ﴿And You humiliate whom You will﴾ meaning His humiliating. It is as he said: "My mercy precedes My wrath." Al-Harali said: And in the word of removal, there is an indication of force and power that is appropriate to the meaning of giving. It is giving to the Arabs and removal from the non-Arabs. As it has been reported that Kisra saw in his dream that he was told: 'Surrender what you have to the owner of the club.' So he removed the dominion of kings from the kings and the emperors and granted it to Quraysh and those who took charge of it and claimed kingship in its name from among the nations, westward and eastward, southward and northward, until the matter is completed in the conclusion. And honor - and Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best - is the honor of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, for His people and for the family of His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and the helpers and the righteous among his companions and his tribe and their children and descendants, whom Allah has stripped of the dominion of this world and adorned them with the honor of the Hereafter and with the honor of the religion. As He, glorified and exalted is He, said: ﴿And to Allah belongs the honor and to His Messenger and to the believers﴾ [Al-Munafiqun: 8] to be in the address a notification of good news for them that He has given them from the honor of the religion what is better than the honor of the dominion of this world. ﴿Whoever desires honor, then to Allah belongs all honor﴾ [Fatir: 10]. So the kings, even if they are honored by the dominion of this world, have no share in the honor of the religion. Allah, glorified and exalted is He, has honored them with the religion, serving them are the free people, and the cities are established for them. They do not find solitude, nor are they confined to a place, nor does their sanctity fall wherever they settle or wherever they are hidden or known. And those who are engaged in kingship are only served by those whom they have enslaved by force. They possess the pretense of creation but do not possess the affections of their hearts. They are confined within the borders of their kingdoms, they do not leave them nor do they move from them until they are prevented from the completeness of the religion. They do not roam the earth nor do they travel in it, until kings prevent the pilgrimage out of fear of humiliation in a place other than the dominion. And Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: "Indeed, a servant whose body I have made sound and I have expanded his provision, remains for five years without coming to the deprived." So the kings are owned by what they possess, and the honored servants of Allah are empowered in what they are directed to. Nothing prevents them from completing the matter of the religion and rectifying the affairs of the Hereafter. No one can stop them, nor can anyone turn them away from it, for they are released from the prison of kingship to the vastness of honor by the honor of Allah, glorified and exalted is He. Allah has made a covenant with the family of His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and He is pleased with them, and He did not please them for kingship with the honor of imamate and the elevation of authority and the usurpation of the affections of hearts. So Allah entrusted them with the hearts of the worlds as they entrusted kings with some of the senses of the employed and the followers. And humiliation is the counterpart of that honor. So if that honor is a religious and divine honor as compensation for the stripping of dominion, then this humiliation - and Allah, the Exalted, knows best - is the humiliation of the people of this world in their worldly affairs, which He, glorified and exalted is He, has imposed upon them due to what their souls have humiliated themselves. They have employed them in their desires, and their followers have humiliated them, so they resorted to them to fulfill their desires. And they are humiliated by those whom they oppress with what they take from them, and they suffer from the humiliation of neglecting the religion. The darkness of oppression is evident on their faces, which testifies to their humiliation in the eyes of the knowledgeable.

And perhaps the Christians of Najran are more intent on this address. They feared that the kings of Rome would take away from them what they had been granted in this world if they informed about what they know regarding this Prophet, the unlettered one, blessings and peace be upon him.

And when it was established that He is the Owner of what has preceded, it resulted in Him having absolute authority. He expressed this by saying: "In Your Hand is the good." He did not mention evil, teaching His servants etiquette in their speech, and encouraging them to turn towards Him and turn away from anything else. This is because it is customary that people are quickest to the one who gives bounties and spends wealth. It also serves as a reminder that evil is worthy of being turned away from in every matter, even from merely mentioning it or bringing it to mind. Although limiting oneself to good, with the ownership of all good, necessitates a similar stance towards evil, as they are opposites. Each one is equal to the negation of the other. Thus, affirming one of them negates the other, and negating it affirms the other. Good is not given except after evil has been negated, and good is not taken away except after evil has been established - and Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best. And when He made it clear that evil is in His Hand just as He made it clear that good is in His Hand and is specific to Him, He confirmed this in a more general manner by saying, justifying: "Indeed, You are capable of all things."