And when they finished the introduction to the truth, the evidence for it, the call to it, and the warning (p-184) with gentleness, I understood their words to mean that if they did not respond, He would take vengeance on them with the [painful] punishment. They followed it with what is more severe as a warning, saying: ﴿And whoever does not respond﴾ meaning: does not renew from him that he should respond to the ﴿caller of Allah﴾ that is: the greatest King, encompassing all things, who has no equal and no one has the power [against Him] in His anger. Thus, the call of this Messenger ﷺ encompasses all of creation.

And when the Book and the Sunnah indicated, as I have presented in the Surahs of Al-An'am and Al-Furqan, the universality of the message, and that the one who neglects to respond to the one whose message encompasses all is a sinner deserving of punishment, He expressed His punishment in a way that indicates its inevitability, saying: ﴿And he is not to be frustrated﴾ meaning: for what He decrees upon him ﴿in the earth﴾ for indeed, it is a sign that is encompassed therein. He is in His dominion and sovereignty, and His power surrounds him ﴿And he has no protector besides Him﴾ meaning: Allah, who grants protection only He ﴿guardians﴾ do for him what a close one does for his close one, such as defending him, interceding for him, redeeming him, and supporting him for his sake.

And when escape from every direction was negated for him, and this does not differ whether the sinner is one or more, this resulted in His saying, glorified and exalted is He, expressing in the plural (p-185) because it is more indicative of power and a sign that the sinners are many due to the prevalence of sins among most natures: ﴿Those﴾ meaning: the far ones from all good ﴿are in clear misguidance﴾ meaning: evident in itself that it is misguidance, manifesting to everyone the ugliness of their encompassing it. Al-Qushayri said: It is said that the response is of two types: the response of Allah, and the response of the caller. The response of the caller is by witnessing the intermediary, which is the Messenger ﷺ, and the response of Allah is in public when the message reaches the invited one through the tongue of the ambassador, and in secret when the recognitions occur from the inspirations to the heart. So, one responds with his self, and one responds with his heart, and one responds with his spirit, and one responds with his secret. And whoever refrains from the call of the caller to him is forsaken, and what he was addressed with is no longer for him.