And when His blessings are a favor from Him and not something deserved by worship or anything else, Allah, the Most High, said, defining that their ultimate purpose is the deserving of reward or punishment based on what He has decreed for Himself, glorified and exalted is He. And the saying does not change with Him. All that He deals with His servants, glorified and exalted is He, of benefit and harm is merely a test for them, to bring forth what they are created with of good or evil: ﴿We will surely test them﴾, meaning we will deal with them as a tester, with what we have of greatness ﴿in it﴾, meaning in that water from which various blessings come, to reveal the state of the grateful and the disbeliever. Al-Razi said: And this is after He withheld from them rain for years - it has ended. And others said: Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Wherever there is water, there is wealth, and wherever there is wealth, there is trial. And Al-Hasan and others said: They were listening and obedient, so the treasures of Kisra and Qaysar were opened to them, and they were tested by them, so they rose up against their leader and killed him - meaning Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him. And it is permissible that it may be metaphorical for knowledge and types of knowledge arising from the acts of worship, which are to the souls as the souls are to the bodies. And the trial may mean the purification from the vile concerns in this world and the punishments in the Hereafter. Whoever purified gold - if I freed it from its impurities.

And when the decree was: Whoever accepts upon the mention of his Lord, We will bless him in the abode of peace forever, He added to it His saying: ﴿And whoever turns away﴾, meaning a continuous turning away until death ﴿from the mention of his Lord﴾, meaning bypassing the worship of the Benefactor towards him, the Nurturer, who has no kindness with anyone else ﴿We will admit him﴾ [Al-Hijr: 12], meaning We will enter him ﴿into punishment﴾ that will be constricting for him like a thread that is in the hole of a bead, in extreme tightness ﴿a steep ascent﴾, meaning a difficult and severe one that will overpower him and rise above him, and it will be higher each day than the one before it as a recompense in accordance with his deeds. For indeed, the longer the time of turning away lasts, the stronger it becomes.