And when He revealed the [Surah] of Repentance, He commanded that it be announced in the greatest assembly to cut off the arguments. He said, adding the latter part of the sentence to its meaning: the informing of the obligation to announce what has been established in the first sentence that is connected to it from the [Surah] of Repentance: ﴿And a proclamation﴾ meaning: this is an announcement and declaration that is occurring and reaching ﴿from Allah﴾ meaning: the One who encompasses all attributes of greatness ﴿and His Messenger﴾ meaning: whose greatness is from His greatness, so He does not direct him to anything except that it is above him; and since the intended purpose is the conveying, which is the duty of the Messenger, he connected it with the preposition of termination and said: ﴿to the people﴾ meaning: all of them from the people of Repentance and others ﴿on the Day of the Greater Hajj﴾ he specified it because the minor pilgrimage is called the lesser Hajj.

And when it was as if it was said: What is this declaration? He said, explaining it clearly what is intended, so that there does not occur any type of confusion, omitting the connection, indicating that this is a continuation based on the assumption of a question from a questioner, not a matter of a call: "Indeed, Allah" meaning: the One who has absolute wealth and overwhelming power, "is free from the polytheists" meaning: those who have no specific covenant, so there is no hindrance to fighting them. It is said that those from whom the declaration of freedom occurred are of two types: one of them had a duration of less than four months, so it was raised to it, and the other had a duration without limit, so it was shortened to it. And whoever does not have a covenant is more deserving, and whoever has a covenant limited to more than four months and has not initiated evil is commanded to complete his covenant until its duration. "And His Messenger" meaning: he is free from them, so it is raised in conjunction with the intended in "is free" or on the position of "that" which is broken and its subject according to those who broke it. And it was read with the accusative in conjunction with the subject of: that or because the conjunction "and" means with, and with the genitive on the neighbor, and it is said: on the oath - as stated in Al-Kashaf: it is narrated that an Arab heard a man reciting it and said: If Allah is free from His Messenger, then I am free from him. So the man took him to Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, and the Arab related his recitation. At that, Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, ordered the learning of Arabic. And Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Qasim ibn Bashar al-Anbari narrated in the introduction of his book on waqf and ibtida with his chain from Ibn Abi Mulaykah, who said: An Arab came in the time of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, and said: Who will recite to me from what Allah has revealed to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him? So a man recited to him the declaration and said: "Indeed, Allah is free from the polytheists and His Messenger" in the genitive. He said: Has Allah indeed freed Himself from His Messenger? If Allah is free from His Messenger, then I am free from him. The saying of the Arab reached Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, so he called him - meaning he asked him and he informed him - and Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: It is not like this, O Arab! He said: Then how is it, O Commander of the Believers? He said: "Indeed, Allah is free from the polytheists and His Messenger." The Arab said: And by Allah, I am free from what Allah and His Messenger are free from. So Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, commanded that the Qur'an should not be recited except by one who is knowledgeable in the language.

And he commanded Abu al-Aswad, so he established grammar. And similar to that in the concern for the Arabic language is what was narrated by the noble Muhammad ibn As'ad al-Jawwani al-Nassaba in his book on genealogies in the biography of Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, with his chain to him that he said: I entered upon the Commander of the Faithful, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, and I saw him deep in thought. I said: What are you thinking about, O Commander of the Faithful? He said: I have heard that in your land there is a linguistic error, so I wanted to write a book on the fundamentals of Arabic. I said to him: If you do this, this language will remain with us. Then I came to him after a few days, and he handed me a sheet containing: 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All speech is a noun, a verb, and a particle. The noun is what informs about the named, the verb is what informs about the action of the named, and the particle is what informs about a meaning that is neither a noun nor a verb.' Then he said: Follow it and add to it what occurs to you. And know that things are three: apparent, implied, and something that is neither apparent nor implied. And indeed, people excel in knowing what is neither implied nor apparent. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali said: So I gathered things and presented them to him. Among those were the particles of the accusative case. I mentioned among them: Indeed, and that, and may, and perhaps, and as if, but I did not mention but. He said to me: Why did you leave it? I said: I did not consider it among them. He said: Rather, it is among them, so add it to them. And Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Zubaidi said in the classes of grammarians: And Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn Yazid said: Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali was asked who opened the way for him to establish grammar and guided him to it. He said: I learned it from Ali ibn Abi Talib. And in another narration: He handed me fundamentals that I followed. And in the summary of their classes by the scholar Muhammad ibn Imran al-Marzbani: Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, had prescribed for Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali letters to teach the people when their tongues became corrupt. He did not like to reveal that out of concern for him after Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. When Ziyad directed him to do something by which he would be a leader and the people would benefit from it, he had already begun it to correct the tongues of the people. He resisted that until one day he passed by the pasture of Basra and heard a reader reciting: 'Indeed, Allah is free from the polytheists and His Messenger.' Until he heard a man say: My strap has fallen. He said: It is not permissible for me after this to leave the people! So he went to Ziyad and said: I will do what the commander has commanded. Let him seek for me a clever, intelligent scribe who understands what I say. So a scribe from Abd al-Qays was brought to him, but he was not pleased with him. Then another from Thaqif was brought to him. And Ibn al-Anbari said in the book of waqf: My father told me that Abu Ikramah said: Al-Utbi said: Muawiyah wrote to Ziyad requesting his son Ubaid Allah. When he came to him, he spoke to him and found him making mistakes in speech. He sent him back to Ziyad and wrote to him a letter reproaching him in it, saying: Is someone like Ubaid Allah to be wasted? So Ziyad sent to Abu al-Aswad and said: O Abu al-Aswad! This red one has increased and corrupted the tongues of the Arabs. If you would write something by which the people could correct their speech and articulate the Book of Allah, Abu al-Aswad refused that and disliked responding to Ziyad's request. So Ziyad sent a man and said to him: Sit in the path of Abu al-Aswad, and when he passes by you, recite something from the Qur'an and intentionally make a mistake in it. And he did that.

When Abu al-Aswad passed by him, the man raised his voice reading: "Indeed, Allah is free from the polytheists and His Messenger." Abu al-Aswad was astonished by that and said: "Glorified is the Face of Allah that He should be free from His Messenger." Then he immediately returned to Ziyad and said: "O this, I have responded to what you asked, and I saw that I should begin with the grammar of the Qur'an. So send me thirty men." Ziyad brought them, and Abu al-Aswad chose ten from them. Then he kept selecting them until he chose a man from Abd al-Qays. He said: "Take the mushaf and a dye that is different from the color of the ink. When I open my lips, drop one dot above the letter, and when I bring them together, place the dot beside the letter. And when I break them, place the dot below it. If I follow any of these movements with a ghunnah, then drop two dots." He began with the mushaf until he reached its end, then he placed the summarized version attributed to him after that. This is the end.

And the day of Hajj mentioned here is for the generality, meaning: in all the days of Hajj - as said by Sufyan al-Thawri - like the day of Siffin, the Camel, and Bu'ath, which refers to the time and period in which that occurred. For this reason, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, called out himself and those he appointed for that in all those days. Abu Hayyan said: The apparent meaning is that it is one day. Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, and a group said: It is the day of Arafah. It was narrated as elevated to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. Abu Musa, may Allah be pleased with him, and a group said: It is the day of Nahr. It was said: All the days of Hajj - as said by Sufyan ibn Uyaynah. Ibn Atiyyah said: What the hadiths have confirmed is that Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, announced those verses on the day of Arafah following the sermon of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him. Then he saw that he did not address the people with the announcement, so he followed them with the announcement on the day of Nahr. On that day, Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, sent someone to assist him with it, like Abu Hurairah and others, may Allah be pleased with them, and they also followed the markets of the Arabs like Dhul-Majaz and others. Thus, the saying of Sufyan is favored - this is the end. And Abdul Razzaq narrated from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, that it is the day of Nahr. He also said in his interpretation: Ma'mar informed us from al-Hasan who said: It is called the Greater Hajj because it was the Hajj of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, the pilgrimage he performed, and the Muslims and polytheists gathered in it. It also coincided with the festival of the Jews and Christians.

And when He, glorified and exalted is He, made known the disavowal from it, He caused it to be a reason for encouraging and warning with His saying: turning to the address: "So if you repent" meaning: from disbelief and betrayal, "then it is" meaning: that great matter which is repentance, "better for you" meaning: because you will succeed in fulfilling the trust in this world, and in Islam with safety in both abodes.

And when repentance is naturally beloved for the benefit it brings, He said: ﴿And if you turn away﴾ meaning: you have burdened yourselves with what is contrary to what is desired from repentance, in accordance with the original nature. You have insisted on disbelief and treachery, following the desires acquired from the filth of your nature and the baseness of the mixtures that have settled in the soul from its original peak to the lowest abyss. ﴿Then know﴾ meaning: knowledge without doubt ﴿that you cannot frustrate Allah﴾ (p-379) meaning: because He has the attributes of perfection from majesty and beauty. The reference here is similar to that in: ﴿So travel freely﴾ [At-Tawbah: 2], and the indication is to what has been mentioned in that.

And when He confronted them with the threat, He turned away from them in the address, belittling them, addressing the highest of His creation, giving him glad tidings in a mocking manner towards them. He said, adding to what you may estimate: So give glad tidings to the treacherous of humiliation, or give glad tidings to the repentant of eternal bliss: ﴿And give glad tidings to those who disbelieve﴾ meaning: they have incurred this description ﴿of a painful punishment﴾ meaning: in this world and the Hereafter or in both.