His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And if your Lord had willed, all who are on earth would have believed together. So will you compel mankind until they become believers?﴾ ﴿And it is not for a soul to believe except by permission of Allah. And He places the unclean upon those who do not use reason.﴾ ﴿Say, 'Look at what is in the heavens and the earth.' But signs and warnings do not avail a people who do not believe.﴾

The meaning: Indeed, all of this that has preceded is by the decree of Allah upon them and His will concerning them. If Allah had willed, all would have been believers. So do not grieve, O Muhammad, over the disbelief of those who do not believe in you. And call [them] and do not worry about it. The matter is determined. Do you want to compel people by forcing faith into their hearts and make them do so, while Allah, exalted and majestic is He, has willed otherwise?

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

This interpretation of the verse is decisive, meaning: Call and fight those who oppose you, and the faith of those who believe is subject to the will [of Allah].

And a group said: The meaning is: Do you compel people by fighting until they enter into faith? They claimed that this verse was revealed at the beginning of Islam and that it has been abrogated by the verse of the sword. And the verse, according to both interpretations, refutes the Mu'tazilah. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿all of them together﴾ is an affirmation and is from eloquent speech, and 'together' is an emphatic state. An example of this is His saying, glorified is He: ﴿Do not take two gods﴾ [An-Nahl: 51].

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And it is not for a soul to believe except by permission of Allah﴾, is a reference to Allah, exalted is He, and that the ability and power in the faith of those who believe is for Allah, and the unclean is upon the disbelievers. And Asim read in the narration of Abu Bakr: 'And We will make the unclean' with the pronoun of majesty, while the others read, and Hafs from Asim read: 'And He makes' with the pronoun of the singular. And Al-Amash read: 'And Allah makes the unclean.' And the unclean can mean punishment like 'rijz', and it can mean filth and impurity like 'rik's'. Abu Ali mentioned this here and others, and in this verse it means punishment, and ﴿do not use reason﴾ means: the signs of Allah and the proofs of the Shari'ah. And the meaning of permission in this verse is: the will and decree for that, so it is knowledge and enabling.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿Say, 'Look at what is in the heavens and the earth.'﴾ This verse is a command to the disbelievers to reflect and observe the creations that indicate the Creator, and other signs of the heavens and its spheres, its stars, and its clouds, and so forth, and the earth, its vegetation, its minerals, and others. The meaning is: Look into that with the necessary attention, for it will alert you to the knowledge of Allah and belief in His Oneness. Abu Abd al-Rahman and the general public read in Basra: 'Say, Look!' with a kasra on the lam. Nafi' and the people of Medina read: 'Say, Look!' with a damma on the lam. Then it was made known at the end of the verse that the observation of the signs and the hearing from the 'warnings,' which are the Prophets, does not benefit except by the will of Allah, and that this is of no benefit to a people whom Allah has decreed that they will not believe. This is on the condition that 'what' is negating, and it is permissible that it be considered an interrogative for the purpose of confirmation, which inherently negates the occurrence of belief. In this verse, there is a reprimand for those present with the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, from the polytheists. And His saying: ﴿The signs and the warnings﴾ limits the two ways of knowing Allah, the Exalted. It is possible that 'and what' in His saying: ﴿And what does not benefit﴾ is an object of His saying: ﴿Look!﴾, conjoined to His saying: ﴿What﴾, meaning: Contemplate the extent of the benefit of the signs and the warnings for the disbelievers if they accept that, like the people of Yunus, peace be upon him, for indeed it removes the punishment in this world and the Hereafter and saves from calamities. Thus, the verse is an encouragement to believe. The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And the figurative use of the term - according to this interpretation - is only in His saying: (they will not believe).