Commentary
And when He, glorified and exalted is He, mentioned this doer of good, beginning with him due to the position of the standing for good, He followed him with the wrongdoer appropriate to the intended purpose of the mentioned surah, clearly at its beginning, and He said, exalted is He: ﴿And he who said to his parents﴾, while both of them were disbelievers in His blessings, rejecting our command regarding them. Thus, he was a disbeliever in the blessing of the greatest Bestower that is perceived, after disbelieving in the blessings of the greatest Bestower absolutely. The dual form indicates that he is the most severe of people in hardness; for the custom has been to accept a person's words even if he is one, and that the gathering absolutely has an effect. So how about if it is a parent: ﴿Uff﴾ means: annoyance, disgust, disdain, and aversion from me. Its languages are forty - as mentioned in the dictionary. The widely transmitted readings from the reciters are three: the kasrah without tanween; which is the reading of the majority, and the intended meaning is that the meaning he aimed for is associated with a fixed lowliness. And with tanween, which is the reading of the Medinians, Hafs, and the intended meaning is that it is a great lowliness that continues with time through dominance and oppression. And the fathah without tanween, which is the reading of Ibn Kathir, Ibn Amir, and Ya'qub, and the intended meaning is the association of the intended meaning with being well-known for highness and spread with permanence. It has previously been mentioned in Al-Isra from Al-Harali - and that is the truth - that the term 'ta'feef' is the utmost harm and its severest form. For its meaning is that the one who is subjected to 'ta'feef' has no danger or weight at all, and is not suitable for anything; rather, [he is] nonexistence, and nonexistence is better than him along with the utmost filth.
And when it was as if it was said: To whom is this reproach? He said: "To both of you." And when they were as if they said to him: Why this great contempt after the kindness? You cannot repay us for it. He said, reproaching, admonishing, denying the estimation of it being a promise: "Do you promise me" meaning: in the manner of continuity by renewing at every time "that I will be brought out" [meaning] from an exit that brings me out of the earth after I have been in it and have become dust, to be revived as I was the first time. "And indeed" meaning: while it is that he has "passed" meaning: advanced and preceded and gone through the ways of death, "the generations" meaning: the many ages from their hardness. And it has been established that a generation does not perish except after a long time, so the perishing in that is not exhaustive of time. He said: "Before me" meaning: a generation after generation and a nation after nation, and the times have prolonged, and most of them deny this account, so I am with the majority. And this was supported by the fact that none of them has returned. "And they" meaning: while it is that whenever he said to them that, "they seek help from Allah" meaning: they ask with their supplication from Him who has all perfection to assist them by inspiring them to accept their words, saying to their son, striving in advising him after striving in supplication: "Woe to you" as the one who is concerned says when the distress increases and the grief reaches him, indicating that nothing remains for him if he turns away except woe, which is destruction. "Believe" meaning: establish the faith that there is no faith other than it, and it is what saves from every destruction and necessitates every success by believing in resurrection and in all that has come from Allah. Then they justified their matter in this way, confirming in response to his denial, saying: "Indeed, the promise of Allah" meaning: the greatest king encompassing all attributes of majesty and perfection, described with might and wisdom, "is true" meaning: firmly established most firmly, for if it were not true, it would be a deficiency from the aspect of the falsehood which the least of the Arabs would not accept for himself. So how could it entail a contradiction of wisdom by the creation then being in the manner of absurdity, for they are servants and subjects who are not presented to their king who created them with His knowledge of what they are upon from the oppression of some of them towards others and the tyranny of some of them over others. "He will say" explaining their saying and responding to it: "What is this" meaning: what you have mentioned to me about resurrection "except the tales of the ancients" meaning: myths that were written in the manner of falsehood by the ancients and transmitted from them through the ages, generation after generation, until it reached a point where the weak think that it is true. And this is indeed astonishing that by believing it, it does not entail corruption according to any of the possible estimations, but rather belief carries it towards the virtues of deeds and the high morals which he acknowledges are virtues from adhering to the path of good and abandoning the path of evil. And his disbelief leads him to frivolity and wickedness, arrogance and evil deeds, and base morals with the possibility of the destruction that they frighten him with, and it does not negate that it is a possibility even if he distances it. So what they call him to, as you see, no sane person would reject, but these are minds that have been overwhelmed by their Creator.
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