And when He clarified the condition of their deserving of punishment, He clarified its time. In it, there is an explanation for its cause. He said: ﴿When﴾ meaning: at the time ﴿He made those who disbelieved﴾ meaning: concealed what appeared of the truth in the view of their minds ﴿in their hearts﴾ meaning: the hearts of their souls ﴿the fervor﴾ meaning: the strong prevention and the pride and refusal that is in the intensity of its heat and its penetration in the strongest bodies like poison and fire. And since such fervor may be a cause for mercy when it is for Allah, He said, clarifying and magnifying its crime, ﴿the fervor of ignorance﴾ which is based on absolute prevention; meaning: whether it is with truth or with falsehood, it prevents submission to the truth. Its foundation is the desire for revenge based on anger for other than Allah, which necessitates crossing the limits of the law. Therefore, they were averse to the entry of the Muslims into the honored Mecca to visit the [Ancient] House, which is equal for all people, and from acknowledging the Bismillah. This fervor led them to turn away from the word of piety and they became reckless and hastened to polytheism, which is the most false of falsehoods.

And when this fervor was with the multitude, it was certainly a cause for the humiliation of the one towards whom it was directed, especially if he was few. It indicated that the matter is dependent on His will, not on the usual custom that it was affected by, contrary to what is required by custom. So he said, causing this fervor: ﴿Then Allah sent down﴾ meaning: the One whom nothing overcomes, and He overcomes all things because of their fervor ﴿His tranquility﴾ meaning: the thing appropriate to be attributed to Him, glorified and exalted is He, from the understanding of Allah and the spirit that necessitates the calmness of the heart, which influences the courage to confront the enemy and victory over him, a sending down occurring ﴿upon His Messenger﴾ blessings and peace be upon him, whose greatness is from His greatness. So he understood from Allah His intent in this matter and proceeded to the utmost of what pleases Him ﴿and upon the believers﴾ may Allah be pleased with them, the deep-rooted in faith; because they are the followers of His Messenger ﷺ and the supporters of His religion. He obliged them to accept His command, which [he understood from Allah and] was hidden from most of them until [you understood it] ﷺ at the descent of Surah Muhammad and protected them from the whispers of the devils. They were not affected by what affected the disbelievers from the fervor to fight out of anger for themselves, so they transgressed the limits of the law. ﴿And He obliged them﴾ meaning: the believers, an obligation of honor or respect, not an obligation of humiliation and harshness ﴿the word of piety﴾ and it is every saying or action arising from piety and elevating the word of sincerity mentioned earlier in Surah Al-Qital, which is there is no deity except Allah, which is the truest of truths. It necessitates the realization of its meaning that there is no doer except Allah, steadfast in all that He informed His Messenger ﷺ of monotheism, and the Bismillah, and the message, along with changing the writing in each of them for the disbelievers in that context of the refutation, which hardly allows a foot to stand. He added it to the piety, which is taking a shield that protects from the heat of the fire, and made it a necessary description for them, inseparable from them because it is the cause that carries them upon it. And the one who carries piety gathers the belief in oneness; there is no deity except Allah; for it is a word - as Al-Razi said - its beginning is the negation of polytheism, and its end is the attachment to divinity. And this is one of the signs of prophethood; for indeed, the people of Hudaybiyyah who were obliged to this word all died upon Islam ﴿and they were﴾ meaning: by nature and disposition.

And when there are among the disbelievers those who deserve it in the knowledge of Allah, and they become believers, He expressed it with the comparative form and said, "More deserving of it." This means the word of piety from the disbelievers, the Bedouins, and others from all of creation. For such a generalization, He permitted the omission of the one preferred over. And when the more deserving of a thing may not be its rightful owner from the beginning, He said, "And its people," meaning its leaders and those who are closely associated with it, as a close companion is with his companion, and those indebted to it and those who are fond of it. And when the ruling on that can only be for one who knows, He said, adding to what you can infer: When Allah knew of the righteousness of their hearts and their purity, "And Allah was," meaning: the All-Encompassing in knowledge and power of all that exists, "Knowing of all things," from that and other than it, "Knowing," meaning: encompassing both precise and clear knowledge. And the verse is from the intertwining: He mentioned the zeal of ignorance first as evidence against it secondly, and the word of piety secondly as evidence against it first. And its secret is that He mentioned the gathering of evil first to instill fear of it and the gathering of good second to encourage it.