And when He mentioned their punishment, He mentioned its time in a way that confirms what has passed of His encompassing knowledge and perfect power. He said: "On the Day Allah will resurrect them." This means that this will be at the time of the return of the Supreme King to the disbelievers explicitly mentioned and the believers referred to, alive as they were, all together in their resurrection. And when there is no greater pain than being reproached in the presence of some people, how about when it is in the presence of all of them? How about when it is in view of all of creation and in hearing? This caused Him to follow up His statement: "So He will inform them" [meaning] He will inform them with a great and comprehensive news "of what they did" as a disgrace to them and as an establishment of proof against them.

And when the precision of that matter is great, He began His statement clarifying its insignificance to Him: "Allah has encompassed it" meaning He has encompassed it in number, quality, time, and place with what He has of the attributes of majesty and beauty. And when He mentioned His encompassing it, it might have been thought that it is something that can typically be counted. He negated that with His saying: "And they forgot it" meaning all of them together for its exceeding the limit in multitude. So how about each one individually? They forgot what is in it of sins, taking them lightly, and that is the essence of taking lightly Allah and daring against Him. Al-Qushayri said: When one is held accountable on the Day of Resurrection for an action he has done, he will envision what he did, then he will remember until it is as if in that state he has risen from the mat of error, and he will experience from shame and regret what makes him forget every punishment in comparison to it. The way of the Muslim is that he should not oppose the command of his Lord nor hover around opposing His command. If destiny occurs and he falls into the abyss of negligence, let him be mindful of his slip, and let him supplicate to Allah with good humility.

And when the decree is according to what the conjunction has guided to regarding what is not mentioned: Allah is All-Knowing of everything of that and other than it. He followed up His statement: "And Allah" meaning with what He has of the encompassing power and the all-encompassing knowledge "is Witness" meaning He is a Preserver present who does not become absent, and a Watcher who does not neglect. His preservation of it and His watchfulness over it and His presence with it is dominant over it, overpowering it with the encompassing nature of His power over everything, so that His preservation of it can be in the most complete manner He desires.

Imam Abu Ja'far [bin] al-Zubayr said: When He, glorified and exalted is He, purified Himself from the false claims of the atheists, and made it known that the entire world purifies Him from that by the tongues of their conditions, as a testimony of the worlds to themselves by their need for a Wise One who created them, it is not possible for Him to resemble anything from them, rather He is exalted above their attributes and sanctified from their characteristics. So He said, "Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah" [al-Hadid: 1]. This means that He is known by His great authority and high dominion. Then the address turned to His servants in His saying: "Believe in Allah and His Messenger" [al-Hadid: 7] to what follows after that from the verses. This was a type of turning away, and the situation here is more similar to His saying, glorified and exalted is He, in Surah al-Baqarah: "And when your Lord said to the angels" [al-Baqarah: 30]. For after detailing the condition of the pious and the condition of those who are placed among them, and the condition of those who resemble them outwardly among the pious while they are counted among the worst of the disbelievers, when this pattern was completed, He then turned to the call of creation to the worship of Allah and His Oneness: "O mankind, worship your Lord" [al-Baqarah: 21]. Then He completely shifted the speech and directed the address to the introduction of His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, among the creation: "And when your Lord said to the angels, 'Indeed, I will make upon the earth a vicegerent'" [al-Baqarah: 30]. This came as a type of turning away. Similarly, the situation here clarified the condition of the polytheists of the Arabs and condemned their obstinacy and reproached them in several surahs, the majority of whose verses are in line with that and renew it, the first of which is Surah Sad, as He indicated in Surah al-Qamar. And to the extent mentioned in it until Surah al-Qamar came, informing of the cutting off of their end. The excuse mentioned therein also continued, as well as in Surah al-Rahman after it. Then He followed that with the introduction of the condition of the final abode in Surah al-Waqi'a, with an increase of reproach and rebuke for the sins that necessitated His glorification and sanctification from their vile fabrications. Thus, it was followed by Surah al-Hadid. Then He directed the address in it to the believers, and this continued until the end of the surah. Surah al-Mujadila proceeded with this intent, directing its address to the situation of the believers' desire to know its ruling, which is the clear declaration of the matter concerning the zihar. Thereafter, the speech did not return as it had when He directed it to: "Believe in Allah and His Messenger" [al-Hadid: 7] with more than addressing the clarification of a ruling that would occur among them. Then, the surahs that followed until the end of the book continued, most of them for this purpose, to conclude what He intended from the introduction of the news of the past generations and the previous nations, and the reproach of those who opposed and their rebuke, and the mention of the example of creation and their final abode, and the details of the obligations and the recompense for them in terms of reward and punishment, and what leads to the uprightness of those who responded and believed, and what they must adhere to regarding the levels of obligations and their confirmation. When this was completed, He directed the speech to what concerns the believers in their rulings and introduced them to what is in it of their salvation. Thus, most of the verses of the surah after this are of this nature. And if others diverged, it was for a necessary call, which is the less frequent, as we have explained - ended.