His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

"He is the One who causes you to travel on land and sea. Until when you are in the ships and they sail with them by a good wind, and they rejoice in it, there comes a stormy wind and the wave comes to them from every place, and they think that they are surrounded, they call upon Allah, making their religion sincere to Him, 'If You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful.'"

This verse includes the enumeration of the blessing in what is the state of it by means of traveling on the sea. Traveling on it at the time of good expectation for jihad and pilgrimage is agreed upon as permissible. Likewise, for the necessity of livelihood by hunting in it or for the conduct of trade. As for traveling on it to seek wealth and abundance, it is disliked by the majority. The utmost permissibility of it is to say: and leaving it is better. As for traveling on it in its turbulence, it is disliked and prohibited. And in the hadith: "Whoever travels on the sea in its turbulence, his obligation is released."

And the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "I will never ride the sea."

The majority of the reciters from the seven and others read: "He causes you to travel." Abu Ali said: This is an intensification of the meaning, not an intensification of the transitive action. For the Arabs say: "I traveled the man" and "I caused him to travel." And from this is the saying of Al-Hudhali:

"So do not be distressed by a journey that you have traveled, for the first one pleased is the one who travels it."

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

And on this verse, there is an objection so that it is not a witness in this, which is that the pronoun is made like the adverb, as you say: "I traveled the road." And this is the reading of the majority from "He causes to travel," and likewise it is in the Mus'haf of Ibn Mas'ud, and in the Mus'haf of Abu Shaykh. And it was said by Awf ibn Abi Jamila: He used to read: "He spreads you," but Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf changed it to: "He causes you to travel." Sufyan ibn Abi Zahal said: They used to read: "He spreads you," and they looked in the Mus'haf of Ibn 'Affan, may Allah be pleased with him, and found it: "He causes you to travel." And the first one who wrote it like that was Al-Hajjaj. And Ibn Kathir read in some of his ways: "He causes you to travel" from Asara. And Ibn 'Amir alone from the seven read: "He spreads you" with a fatha on the ya and a damma on the sheen, from spreading and broadcasting. And this is the reading of Zaid ibn Thabit, Al-Hasan, Abu Al-Aliya, Abu Ja'far, Abdullah ibn Jubair ibn Al-Fasi, Abu Abdur-Rahman, Shaybah, and it was narrated from Al-Hasan that he read: "He spreads you" with a damma on the ya and a kasra on the sheen and he said it is the reading of Abdullah. Abu Hatim said: I think he made a mistake.

And "the ships": is the plural of "ship," and it is not a single name for all and the individual, but it is a form that is pluralized on a form. And what indicates that is their saying: "two ships" in the dual form. And the reading of Abu Darda and Umm Darda: "in the ships" on the pattern of "Fuli" with a ya of attribution, like their saying: "Ashqari" and "Dawwari" in the course of time.

'And His saying: "And they sailed" is a sign of a small number. And His saying: "with them" is a departure from presence to absence. This is good because their saying: ﴿You were in the ship﴾ is in the rational meaning. Until when some of you were in the ships, and the wind, when it is singled out, is known to be used in punishment and what is disliked. However, it is not good in the sea to be anything but one without spreading. So the singular was restricted to the good and thus it was removed from that known usage and the meaning excelled. And Ibn Abi Abla read: "A fierce wind came to them," and the fierce is the strong one of the wind. It is said: The wind blew fiercely. And His saying: "And they thought" is at the door of thought, but it is a dominant and frightening thought according to the fact that they are in danger. And His saying: ﴿They called upon Allah﴾ means: They forgot the idols and the partners and made the supplication purely to Allah. And Al-Tabari mentioned in this from some scholars the narration of the saying of the non-Arabs: "O Hayy, O Qayyum," and its meaning is: O Ever-Living, O Sustainer. Al-Tabari said: The answer to His saying: ﴿Until when you were in the ship and they sailed﴾ is: ﴿A fierce wind came to it﴾. And the answer to His saying: ﴿And they thought that they were surrounded﴾ is: ﴿They called upon Allah, making their supplication purely to Him﴾.