'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And inform them about the guest of Abraham﴾ ﴿When they entered upon him and said, 'Peace.' He answered, 'Indeed, we are afraid of you.'﴾ ﴿They said, 'Do not be afraid; we give you good tidings of a learned boy.'﴾ ﴿He said, 'Do you give me good tidings when old age has struck me? So of what do you give good tidings?'﴾ ﴿They said, 'We give you good tidings in truth, so do not be of the despairing.'﴾ ﴿He said, 'And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except for those astray?'﴾ Abu Haywah read: 'And inform them' with a dammah on the letter 'h' without hamzah. This is the beginning of a story after the first purpose has ended. 'The guest' is a source described by which it applies to the singular, dual, and plural, masculine and feminine with one word. Al-Nahhas and others said: The intended meaning is: about the companions of the guest. Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: It suffices that this source has been treated like the names, as has been done with 'pledge' and similar. The intended meaning of 'the guest' here is the angels who came to destroy the people of Lot and gave good tidings to Abraham, peace be upon him. Their story has already been mentioned. His saying: 'Peace' is a source in the accusative case due to an implied verb, the meaning of which is: We have greeted, or we greet with peace. The peace here is the greeting, and his saying: 'Peace' is a narration of their words, so the saying does not act in it. Rather, it acts if what follows is a translation of a speech that is not narrated verbatim, as when you say to one who said: 'There is no god but Allah': You said the truth, and similar to this. His saying: ﴿Indeed, we are afraid of you﴾ means: terrified. Indeed, Abraham, peace be upon him, was afraid of them when he presented to them the roasted calf and did not see them eat. The sign of faith for them was eating food, and likewise it has been a security for the guest and the one being hosted throughout history. The majority read: 'Do not be afraid' in the future tense of 'to be afraid.' Al-Hasan read with a dammah on the 't' in the form of the verb for the passive, from 'to be afraid,' because 'to be afraid' does not take an object. This good tidings was about Isaac, and that was after the birth of Ishmael by a period. Abraham's saying: ﴿Praise be to Allah who has granted me in old age Ishmael and Isaac﴾ [Ibrahim: 39] does not necessitate that they were granted to him at that time, but rather long before the praise. The majority read: 'Do you give me good tidings?' with an alif of interrogation. Al-A'raj read: 'You give me good tidings' without an alif. His saying: ﴿When old age has struck me﴾ means: in a state that old age has struck me in it. Ibn Muhaisin read 'the old age' with a dammah on the 'k' and a sukoon on the 'b.' Abu Amr, Asim, Ibn Amer, Hamzah, and Al-Kisai read: 'You give good tidings' with a fatha on the 'n' which is a sign of the nominative case, and the verb - according to this reading - is intransitive. Al-Hasan al-Basri read: 'You give me good tidings' with a doubled 'n' and a 'y.' Ibn Kathir read with a doubled 'n' without a 'y.' This reading has the 'n' of the sign merged into the 'n' which is for the speaker, making way for the 'y.' Nafi' read: 'You give me good tidings' with a kasra on the 'n,' and Abu Hatim criticized Nafi' for this reading, saying: The evidence of poetry in this is forced. Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this is a carrying from Him. The interpretation of this reading is that the 'n' of the speaker has been omitted, and the 'n' which is a sign of the nominative has been broken according to the 'y'. Then the 'y' has been omitted due to the indication of the kasrah upon it. This is similar to the saying of the poet - which Sibawayh recited:

You see him like the thagham, carrying musk, That delights the falayat when I am gone.

And from the omission of this 'n' is the saying of the poet:

I have been granted from the victory of the two Khubayb,

He means Abdullah and Mus'ab, the sons of al-Zubayr. Abdullah was nicknamed Abu Khubayb.

Al-Hasan read "So with what do you give glad tidings?" with the 't' opened and the 'sh' pronounced with a dhammah.

And the saying of Ibrahim: "So with what do you give glad tidings?" is an expression of astonishment and disbelief at their old age, or it is in the context of contempt and lack of concern for the joys due to the passage of time and the dominance of old age. Mujahid said: He was astonished by his old age and the old age of his wife, and the mention of his age at the time of the glad tidings has already been made.

And their saying: "We have given you glad tidings of the truth" contains a certain intensity, meaning: rejoice in what you have been given glad tidings of and leave aside anything else. The majority of the people read: "the despondent". Al-Qunoot means complete despair. Yahya ibn Thabitat, al-A'mash, and Ibn Musarif read, and it was narrated from Amr: "the despondent". Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Asim, Ibn Amir, and Hamzah read: "And who despairs" with the 'n' opened throughout the Qur'an. Abu Amr and al-Kisai read with a kasrah. All of them read: "after they had despaired" with the 'n' opened. Abu Ubaidah rejected the reading of the people of the two sacred mosques and denied that it should be said: "despaired" with a kasrah, and it is not as he said, because they do not agree except on something strong in the language narrated from them. And it is an eloquent reading. It is said: 'qanata' means to despair, and 'qanita' means to be despondent, like 'naqama' and 'naqima'. Al-A'mash also read here: "despairs" with a kasrah, and read: "after they had despaired" with a kasrah as well. Thus, he read in both languages. Al-Ashhab read: "despairs" with a dhammah, which is the reading of al-Hasan and al-A'mash as well, and it is the language of Tamim.