His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And be patient with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His face. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring the adornment of the worldly life. And do not obey he whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire, and whose affair has been lost.﴾ ﴿And say, 'The truth is from your Lord.' So whoever wills, let him believe; and whoever wills, let him disbelieve. Indeed, We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire which has encompassed them. And if they cry for help, they will be aided with water like molten copper that scalds the faces. Wretched is the drink, and evil is the resting place.﴾

The reason for this verse is that the leaders of the disbelievers were said to be from the people of Makkah, and it was said that 'Aynah ibn Hisn and his companions were involved. The first opinion is more accurate because the Surah is Makki. They said to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him: 'If you distance these from yourself, we will sit with you and accompany you,' referring to 'Ammar ibn Yasir, Suhayb ibn Sinan, Salman al-Farsi, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, and others from the poor like Bilal and others. They said: 'Indeed, the smell of their garments bothers us.' So the verse was revealed because of that. It has been narrated that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, went out to them and sat among them and said: 'Praise be to Allah who has made from my Ummah those whom I was commanded to be patient with.' And it was narrated that he said to them: 'Welcome to those whom my Lord has admonished me about.' And Salman narrated that the ones whose hearts are inclined were 'Aynah ibn Hisn, al-Aqra', and their companions. They said what was mentioned, and the verse was revealed.

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

So the verse - according to this - is Madani, and it resembles that the verse could be Makki. The ones whose hearts are inclined acted like the Quraysh, so he responded to them with the verse.

And 'be patient' means: restrain. From it is the term 'masburah' which was mentioned in the hadith: 'The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, forbade the restraining of animals,' meaning: restraining them for shooting and the like.

The majority read 'bih al-ghadati,' and Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, read 'bih al-ghadwah,' which is the reading of Nasr ibn 'Asim, Malik ibn Dinar, Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, and al-Hasan. It is written in the script for both readings with the conjunction 'wa.' So whoever reads it 'bih al-ghadati' should write it as it is written 'as-salah wa az-zakah.' In the reading of those who read: 'bih al-ghadwah,' there is a weakness; because 'ghadwah' is a definite noun, and it is proper that it should not be preceded by the definite article. The reason for the reading in this way is that they attached it as a type of indefiniteness; as they said: 'I came in the morning,' meaning: from the mornings. So the inclusion of the definite article is appropriate, just as they say: 'al-faynah,' and 'faynah' is a definite noun. (p-598) And the reference to His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿They call upon their Lord morning and evening﴾ refers to the five prayers, as said by Ibn 'Umar, Mujahid, and Ibrahim. And Qatadah said: The intended prayers are the Fajr prayer and the 'Asr prayer.

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

And included in the verse are those who call upon Allah outside of prayer, and those who gather for the discussion of knowledge. And it has been narrated that Abdullah ibn 'Umar reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he said: 'The remembrance of Allah in the morning and evening is better than breaking swords in the way of Allah, and better than giving money generously.'

Abu Abdur Rahman read: "by the morning" without a 'h', and Ibn Abi Abla read: "by the mornings and the evenings" in the plural.

And His saying, the Most High: ﴿And do not let your eyes pass beyond them﴾ means: do not turn away from them to the children of this world and the adornments of the disbelievers. Al-Hasan read: "And do not pass beyond" with a damma on the 'ta', a fatha on the 'ayn', and a shadda on the broken 'dal', meaning: do not go beyond them. It was narrated from him: "And do not pass" with a damma on the 'ta' and a sukoon on the 'ayn'. And His saying: ﴿Whom We have made heedless﴾, it was said that he meant by that a specific person, namely 'Uyayna ibn Hisn, and Al-Aqra'. This was said by Khabbab. It was also said that he meant by this His description, and the intended meaning at first is the disbelievers of Quraysh because the verse is Meccan. The majority read: "We have made his heart heedless" with the 'ba' in the accusative, meaning: We made him heedless. Amr ibn Faid and Musa al-Aswari read: "His heart has become heedless" meaning: he neglected Our remembrance and left it. Ibn Jinni said the meaning is: whoever thinks that We are heedless of him. Abu Amr al-Dani mentioned that this is the reading of Amr ibn Abid.

And "the forerunner" can mean negligence and waste, meaning his matter which he must adhere to. It can also mean excess and extravagance, meaning his matter and desire which is in his way. The interpreters have explained it with both phrases, namely negligence and extravagance. Khabbab expressed it as destruction, Dawud as regret, and Ibn Zayd as opposing the truth. All of this is interpretation by meaning.

And His saying, the Most High: ﴿And say: The truth is from your Lord﴾, the meaning is: And say to them, O Muhammad: This is the truth from your Lord, meaning: this Qur'an, or this turning away from you, and leaving obedience to you, and being patient with the believers. Qun'ub and Abu al-Sammal read: "And he said" with a fatha on the 'lam'. Abu Hatim said: This is poor in Arabic. And His saying: ﴿So whoever wills, let him believe﴾, this is a warning and a threat, meaning: let every person choose for himself what he will find tomorrow with Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. A group interpreted it as: Whoever Allah wills to have faith, let him believe, and whoever Allah wills to disbelieve, let him disbelieve.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is directed, meaning: its truth is faith and its truth is disbelief. Then he expressed that with the wording of command as an obligation and encouragement, in that for a person is the earning by which the reward of faith and the punishment of disbelief is attached. Al-Hasan and 'Isa al-Thaqafi read: "Let him believe... and let him disbelieve" with a kasra on both 'lam's.

And "We have prepared" is derived from 'atad', which means the thing that is prepared and present.

And "the curtain" is the wall surrounding like stones that encircle and surround the tent. It may be made of the type of tent fabric or clothing or something similar. And from it is the saying of Ru'ba:

O Hakim ibn al-Mundhir ibn al-Jarud, The curtain of glory is spread over you.

And from it is the saying of Salama ibn Jandal:

He is the one who brings Al-Nu'man into a house whose sky is The chests of elephants after a tent that is curtained.

And Al-Zajjaj said: "The curtain" is everything that surrounds a thing.

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

And this, in my view, is more specific than what Al-Zajjaj said.

And there is a difference regarding the curtain of the Fire. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Its curtain is a wall of fire. A group said: Its curtain is smoke that surrounds the disbelievers. And His saying, the Exalted, "Go to a shade with three branches" [Al-Mursalat: 30]. Another group said: The encompassing is in this world, and the curtain is the sea. This meaning has been narrated through the route of Ya'la ibn Umayyah from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. Then comes His saying, the Exalted, "He encompassed them," meaning: the humans. Al-Tabari narrated the hadith from Ya'la, who said: The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "The sea is Hellfire," and he recited this verse. Then he said: "By Allah, I will never enter it, as long as I am alive." It has also been narrated from him, blessings and peace be upon him, through Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri that he said: "The curtain of the Fire has four thick walls, the width of each wall is the distance of forty years of travel."

And His saying, the Exalted, "They will be given relief," means they will have a place of relief. This is similar to the saying of the poet:

A greeting among them is a kind of hitting.

Meaning: the one who stands in place of the greeting.

And "the molten material," Abu Sa'id said about the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: It is the oil that has reached its heat. A group said: It is any liquid that has been heated until it reaches its heat. Ibn Mas'ud and others said: It is everything that has been melted from gold, silver, lead, or something like that from metals until it becomes fluid. It has been narrated that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud was presented with a vessel made of gold or silver, so he ordered it to be melted until it became fluid and changed colors. Then he called those at his door from the people of Kufa and said: I have not seen in this world anything that resembles molten material more than this, meaning: resembling the drink of the people of the Fire. Another group said: "The molten material" is the pus and blood when they mix. This is supported by the saying of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, regarding the shroud: "It is only for the molten material," meaning: for what flows from the dead in his grave. This is strengthened by His saying, the Exalted: "From boiling water" [Ibrahim: 16].

And His saying, the Exalted, "It will scorch the faces" has been narrated in its meaning from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he said: "The drink will be brought close to the disbeliever, and when it approaches him, he will dislike it. When it gets closer, it will scorch his face, and his face's skin will fall into it. And when he drinks, his intestines will be cut apart." And "the place of refuge" is that which is sought for comfort, and "the place of refuge" that is the resting place is more specific than that which is in the verse, because it is in one meaning of comfort. Al-Tabari has explained the verse with it, and it is more apparent to me that "the place of refuge" means that which is sought for comfort by leaning and otherwise. Mujahid said: "The place of refuge" is the gathering.

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

It seems that he took it to the place of companionship, and from it is companionship. All of this returns to comfort. Al-Tabari denied that he could recognize a meaning for the saying of Mujahid, and the saying is clear in its face. And Allah is the Helper.