Commentary
And when he informed of their lack of fairness in general, he clarified it by saying: ﴿You call upon me﴾ meaning: you direct my supplication to your deities ﴿to deny﴾ meaning: for the purpose of denying ﴿Allah﴾ meaning: to conceal what must be made manifest due to what I attain, for He has everything and He has the sources of might, honor, greatness, and pride ﴿and I associate﴾ meaning: I commit shirk ﴿with Him﴾ meaning: I make a partner for Him. And since everything other than Him, glorified and exalted is He, has nothing of its own except for non-existence, he pointed to its insignificance by expressing it with the term of that which does not reason, saying: ﴿What I have no knowledge of﴾ meaning: a type of knowledge regarding its suitability for anything of partnership, for it is a call to falsehood in something that it is not permissible to undertake except with the definitive evidence that does not allow for any type of shirk. And if there is no knowledge of it, then there is no honor or forgiveness for it, so there is no existence for it because the king is essential to divinity, and He is the most famous of things. So what claims to Him is the most famous of things, thus it was such that it is not recognized in any way, it was pure non-existence.
And when he clarified that they called him to what is non-existence, let alone that it could have any benefit or harm in an overall action, indicating the invalidity of their call and its lack of establishment, he made clear to them that he called them only to that which has complete perfection, and there is no benefit or harm except by His hand. So he said, indicating in the nominal sentence to the establishment of his call and its strength: ﴿And I call you﴾ meaning: I direct your supplication now and before it and after it.
﴿To the Mighty﴾ meaning: the one who possesses might that overcomes everything and nothing overcomes Him. And when he described Him with this description as a warning, it is certainly correct to describe Him with encouragement by saying: ﴿The Forgiving﴾ meaning: the one who repeatedly erases sins in essence and effect, and no one other than the one who possesses the attribute of might can do that. And whoever is rightly described with these two descriptions is the one who no one among the attributes of perfection is ignorant of what he has. So the verse is from the intertwining: he first mentioned the lack of knowledge as evidence for the knowledge that follows, and secondly, the might and forgiveness as evidence for their omission first.
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