Commentary
And when their reasoning regarding the command of Allah necessitated that when He commands something, He follows His command by conveying to them His command that has come with the evidence of reason, supported by decisive transmission, He said: "Say". This means to those who have opposed the law and the custom: "My Lord has commanded me to undertake the good deeds that the noble aspirations call for, with justice". This is the middle command between what is excessive in transgression, rising above the limit, and in neglect, descending from it. And when the implication is: "So be just, following what He has commanded", or that justice is a source that resolves into: "So be just", He added: "And direct your faces". Being sincere, not committing any injustice, "at every place of worship". This means: at every location, time, and condition suitable for prostration. No one should restrict themselves to a specific place or time by saying - when the prayer has reached them -: "I will go and pray in my mosque". "And invoke Him" at all of that, with the invocation of worship, "being sincere to Him in religion". This means: do not associate anything with Him.
And when the meaning is: indeed, whoever does not do that, he will be punished after being resurrected after death, He translates it by citing His saying as a reasoning: "As He began you". This means: in the first creation, you are initiated, we will bring you back after death, and you will "return" while you are in a state of being two groups:
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