And when he clarified the state of the guided ones, the rightly guided, and the original context was about the misguided and those who lead others astray, he followed it with the remainder of the discussion about them in a way that hints that the reason for guidance is divine success. He said, adding to his estimation: So we elevate their matter and beautify their mention: ﴿And those who denied﴾ meaning: attributed the messengers to lying because of their coming with ﴿Our signs﴾ as is witnessed from their greatness. ﴿We will gradually lead them﴾ meaning: we will bring them down and draw them near with a promise that there is no failure in it to what we intend for them of great evil, step by step, because whenever they commit a crime, we bestow upon them a blessing. And if they perform an act of obedience, we withhold from them in bestowing, or we strike them with the whip of vengeance, so they think that sins are the cause of blessings, and they detach themselves from the religion. And for this reason, he said: ﴿From where they do not know﴾ meaning: they commit what is astonishing from their transgressions, let alone directly engaging in them, and those who have even the slightest insight, until we complete what we want from them of sins. This is one of the evidences for ﴿I will turn away from My signs﴾ [Al-A'raf: 146]. And it came in the gradual leading with a tool of greatness and in the prolonging with the singular pronoun, as he said: ﴿And I give them respite﴾ [Al-A'raf: 183] meaning: I grant them time with a decisive promise for a long time and I extend to them while they disobey until they think that Allah loves them, so they increase in that because they do nothing except by My will and they do not escape Me. And he did not bring them in a single manner; because the gradual leading can be through means and without them. It is as if he said: I will lead them gradually by Myself without means at times, and by whom I have granted them blessings through My servants and other forces. As for the prolonging, which is the extension of the term, it cannot be imagined to be except from Allah, the Exalted.