And when it was established that He is the Benefactor to all things by His Lordship, and He concluded with a warning about the gathering, He followed it with a reminder of His kindness towards them. He said, adding to ﴿And He is the Lord of all things﴾ [Al-An'am: 164], appealing to them with a reminder of His favor: ﴿And He is﴾ that is: no one else ﴿the One who made you﴾ that is: O mankind ﴿successors of the earth﴾ that is: you act in it as a successor, being empowered in all that you desire. It is permissible that this refers to the Arabs, and the apparent meaning of the speech is that what is meant by the earth is what they are in, from the Arabian Peninsula. The deeper meaning is the glad tidings of elevating their religion, Islam, above all religions and their dominance over most of the people of the earth in these times and over all the people of the earth in the end of times. ﴿And He raised some of you﴾ in the ranks of intellect, knowledge, religion, wealth, status, and physical and spiritual strength ﴿above others in degrees﴾ that is: while you are from one soul, and perhaps the lowly is more intelligent than the exalted, and his intelligence does not benefit him. This indicates clearly that all of this is the action of the One, the All-Prevailing, without incapacity, ignorance, or stinginess. Then He explained that by saying: ﴿To test you﴾ that is: He acts with you as the tester; to establish the proof against you, and He knows you better than you know yourselves ﴿in what He has given you﴾ so He looks to see if the Majestic shows mercy to the humble, and if the poor is content with His small provision, and if the strong is grateful, and if the weak is patient!

And when He mentioned the elevation of some of them over others, and it is in the nature of humans to be arrogant, He followed it with a warning to the oppressor and an appeal to the repentant by indicating - with what He, glorified and exalted is He, has of high status and great power - to the weakness of the exalted among them and his inability to punish the lowly by whom stands between him and them as an intercessor or supporter, and with what he needs of preparing the means, warning against oppression and disobedience. He said, directing the address to the most complete of creation, comforting his heart, informing him that He raised him - glorified is He - with the best upbringing and taught him the best manners: ﴿Indeed, your Lord﴾ that is: the Benefactor to you ﴿is swift in punishment﴾ that is: for whom He intends to punish from those who deny His favor, for there is no barrier between Him and whom He intends to punish, nor does He need to prepare the means of punishment. Rather, all that He intends is present with Him, ready.

﴿His command is only that when He intends a thing, He says to it, 'Be,' and it is﴾ [Ya-Sin: 82]. And in that is a severe warning for those who do not take heed.

And when He threatened and frightened - He hoped for those who wanted repentance and sought compassion. He said: ﴿And indeed, He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful﴾, indicating that He - despite His complete power over them and their immersion in that which necessitates destruction - is abundant in forgiveness for them and immense in mercy. ﴿And if Allah were to impose blame on the people for their wrongdoing, He would not leave upon it any creature﴾ [An-Nahl: 61]. This is an encouragement for the exalted to pardon the lowly. The second emphasis without the first refers to His saying: ﴿He has decreed upon Himself mercy﴾ [Al-An'am: 12] (Indeed, My mercy has preceded My wrath) because it is in the context of admonishing this nation and reminding them of the blessings upon them with succession. It will come in Al-A'raf with the affirmation of both; because it recounts what happened to the Children of Israel from their hastening to disbelief and their rushing towards it, and their deserving punishment for that. This came in the form of a resumption based on the assumption that a speaker said: At that time (p-346) the exalted hastens to punish the lowly! It was responded that Allah is above all and He is the swiftest in punishment. He is capable of appointing the lowly or one even more insignificant than them against the exalted to destroy him. Then after this intimidation, He encouraged forgiveness by stating that despite His richness from all, He has extended the tail of His forgiveness and mercy by delaying the sinners and accepting a small amount of good deeds, as He created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light beneficial for them, yet they equate Him with others! Were it not for His forgiveness and mercy, His punishment would have swiftly befallen those who equated Him with others, and He would have caused the heavens to fall upon them and the earth to swallow them, which He blessed them with succession therein, and He would have taken away the light from them and prolonged the darkness. Indeed, He concluded the surah with what He began it with, for His saying: ﴿And He is the One who made you successors upon the earth﴾ is intended by His saying: ﴿He is the One who created you from clay﴾ [Al-An'am: 2]. And His saying: ﴿Should I seek a lord other than Allah while He is the Lord of all things?﴾ [Al-An'am: 164] is the meaning of His saying: ﴿He created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieved in their Lord equate﴾ [Al-An'am: 1]. And Allah is the Grantor of success.