And when He specified them with excellence, He reminded them of their reward. He said, mentioning the paradise of their bodies, magnifying for them by expressing His grace upon them with the term of reward, which indicates that it is in exchange for what they were described with: "Their reward" meaning for their obedience to Him. And He magnified it by saying: "With their Lord" to Him, the nurturer of them and the bestower of good. "Gardens of Eternity" meaning a place of permanence that does not change. "Flowing" meaning a continuous flow without interruption. And when the abundance of water is a barrier to the fullness of pleasure, He approached and clarified by saying: "From beneath it" meaning beneath its land, its chambers, and its trees, "the rivers."

And when pleasure cannot be complete except with permanence, He said: "Abiding therein." And when the sight is to encourage in this context, it is a complete urging to follow the known evidence, and the departure from the familiar state, He confirmed the meaning of eternity, magnifying their reward by saying: "Forever."

And when all of this is the fruit of pleasure, and the explicit statement of it is more pleasing to the eye because it is the paradise of the soul, He said, beginning or justifying: "Allah is pleased" meaning with what He has of attributes of majesty and beauty, "with them" meaning with what has preceded for them of care and success. And when pleasure is from both sides, it is more complete and higher for them, He said: "And they are pleased with Him" because they have no wish left except that He has granted it to them, with their knowledge that He is generous in all of that. He is not obliged to anyone for anything, nor is He estimated by anyone as He truly deserves. If He were to take the creation according to what they deserve, He would have destroyed them. And His greatest blessings upon them is what He has bestowed upon them by following His Messenger, blessings and peace be upon him, for that was the cause of every good.

And when that was the case, it might be claimed that it is for specific people in a specific time. He said, generalizing it and drawing attention to the description that was the cause of their deeds which were the cause of their recompense: "That" refers to the high matter by which they permitted "for whoever fears his Lord." This means that the doer of good towards him fears in a way that befits him. He does not lean towards procrastination and laziness, nor does he engrave his soul with evil by following desires in indulging in the prohibited. Rather, he was among those who seek the heights of morals and consults his heart regarding what pleases his Lord. The continuity of his goodness increases his fear, and thus increases his gratitude. For indeed, fear is the essence of the matter and the motivator for all good, and it is for the knowledgeable. Al-Malwi said, in meaning: When a person feels punishment coming to him or loss, a state befalls him called fear. This is the detachment of the heart from the tranquility of safety and its anxiety and disturbance due to the expectation of something undesirable. If it intensifies, it is called terror due to its movement within himself. If it intensifies further, it is called dread due to its leading him to flee. This is the state of the believers fleeing to Allah. And whoever is overwhelmed by love due to immersion in witnessing beauty, a state befalls him called awe, as he does not cease from the fear of being distanced or repelled due to negligence or humiliation. And whoever is overwhelmed by glorification due to immersion in witnessing majesty becomes in awe, and beyond this fear.

﴿Indeed, those who truly fear Allah among His servants are the scholars﴾ [Fatir: 28]. So whoever fears his Lord with this fear, he will detach himself from all that is not befitting of His majesty, glorified and exalted is He. And this fear does not diminish in the evidence, nor is it stopped therein. And no heart has been devoid of fear except that it has been ruined. It is deserving that it should diminish in all that leads to prosperity. And the end of the surah returns to its beginning with this, and by classifying people into two types: one type has detached from the desires of his soul and saved it, and another type has remained in its captivity and has been led to ruin. It has been mentioned in 'The Ascents of Vision for Overseeing the Objectives of the Surahs' the secret of the Prophet's ﷺ specification of Ubayy, may Allah be pleased with him, with the recitation of this surah specifically. The essence of it is that the reason for his specification with that is that he found two of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them, who had opposed him in the recitation, so he raised them to the Prophet ﷺ, and he commanded them, and they presented it to him, and it was good for them. He said: So the disbelief that fell into my soul was greater than that which was in the days of ignorance. The Prophet ﷺ struck my chest, and I sweated profusely, and it was as if I was looking at Allah in awe. Then he narrated to me the story of the alleviation with the seven letters. And the surah in which the disagreement occurred was An-Nahl, and in it, Allah sends His Messenger ﷺ on the Day of Resurrection as a witness, and that the Book was revealed to him as a clarification for everything and as guidance and mercy. And that the Spirit of the Holy was revealed to him with the truth to strengthen those who believe. And that the Jews differed regarding the Sabbath. And the surah 'Lam Yakun' despite its brevity contains a summary of all that is in An-Nahl, with an increase. And in it is a warning against doubt after the clarification, and a condemnation of the state of whoever does that. And his state will be like that of the disbelievers among the People of the Book in obstinacy, and he will be the worst of creatures. The Prophet ﷺ recited it to him, may Allah be pleased with him, as a reminder of all that in the most eloquent and concise manner so that it would be quicker for him to comprehend, thus becoming more firmly established in the soul, more rooted in the heart, and more beloved to the nature. Allah chose him for steadfastness and intended for him stability. So he was among those who desire what his heart reached by the blessing of the Prophet's ﷺ strike to his chest, revealing the veils and dispelling the devils, and looking at the splendors of the sanctity and witnessing that exalted presence. And he became among the purest of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them, in observing the recitation of the Prophet ﷺ with what he remembers of the noble matter by his specification with that. So whenever he recited this comprehensive surah, he would be absent from his own recitation, listening with the ears of his heart to the spirit of prophethood reciting to him that, and his state of witnessing would continue, which he reached by the secret of that strike.

And for its confirmation in this position, he said ﷺ: "The most knowledgeable among you is Ubayy." It was narrated by Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah from Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, and it is authentic. Some of them narrated it as mursal. Among what I did not mention in the ascensions of the year of humility is that no one should let what he sees of his superiority prevent him from reading to someone who is beneath him. For indeed, what prevented most of the people of the Book from embracing Islam was their perception of what they had of knowledge in the Books of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messengers, blessings and peace be upon them, and the ignorance of the Arabs regarding that. They looked at what was and did not consider the current situation now. Thus, envy destroyed their religions and stripped them of their faith, and they became the most miserable of people - as was pointed out at the beginning of the Surah. We ask Allah for forgiveness and well-being in religion, this world, and the Hereafter - Amen.