His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And who turns away from the religion of Ibrahim except one who has made a fool of himself? And We certainly chose him in this world, and indeed, he will be among the righteous in the Hereafter." "When his Lord said to him, 'Submit,' he said, 'I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds.'" "And Ibrahim instructed his sons, and [so did] Yaqub, 'O my sons, indeed Allah has chosen for you the religion, so do not die except while you are Muslims.'"

"Who" is an interrogative in the position of a subject, and "turns away" is its predicate. The meaning is that he despises it and holds himself away from it. The religion is the Shari'ah and the way. And "made a fool" is from foolishness, which means lightness and frivolity. There is a difference of opinion regarding the accusative of "himself." Al-Zajjaj said: "made a fool" means he was ignorant, and he related it by meaning. Others said: "made a fool" means he was destroyed. Thaalab and Al-Mubarrid narrated that "made a fool" with a kasrah of the fa' is transitive like "made a fool" with a fathah of the fa' and its emphasis. It was reported from Abu Al-Khattaab that it is a language. Al-Farraa said: Its accusative is for distinction.

(Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:) Because foolishness relates to the self, opinion, and character, it is as if he distinguished it among these. My opinion is that this definition is not absolute because the pronoun in it has the ambiguity that is in "who." It is as if the speech is: except one who made a fool of himself. The Basriyyun said: Distinction is not permissible with this definition, and rather the accusative is on the estimation of the omission of "in." So when the preposition was omitted, the verb became strong. This follows the view of Sibawayh in what they narrated from their saying: "So-and-so struck the back and the belly" meaning in the back and the belly.

Makkī narrated that the estimation is "except one who made a fool of his saying himself," on the basis that "himself" is an affirmation, the affirmed was omitted, and the affirmation was placed in its place based on analogy to the adjective and the noun modified. This is a biased statement. And "chosen" is derived from the choice, its meaning is: He selected the best. The ta' was changed to ta' for its correspondence with the sad in its emphasis. The meaning of this choosing is that He informed him and took him as a friend, and "in the Hereafter" is related to a subject of a verb implied from righteousness, and it is not appropriate for its relation to "the righteous" because the relative cannot precede the relative. This is on the assumption that the alif and lam mean "the one who," and some of them said: The alif and lam here are for definition, and the speech is correct. It was said: The meaning is that he is in the action of the Hereafter "among the righteous," so the speech is on the omission of a genitive.

And His saying, exalted is He: "When his Lord said to him, 'Submit,'" the agent in (when We chose him) was this saying from Allah when He tested him with the star, the moon, and the sun. And submission here is in its most complete form.

(p-355) Nafi' and Ibn 'Amir read: "And he advised." The others read: "And he bequeathed," and the meaning is the same, except that "bequeathed" implies a greater emphasis. The pronoun in "in it" refers back to his words, which are: ﴿I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds﴾. It is said that it refers to the previous religion, but the first is more accurate because it is the closest mentioned. Amr ibn Faid al-Aswari read: "and Ya'qub" with the accusative, on the basis that Ya'qub is included among those who were advised. There was a disagreement regarding its grammatical case in the nominative. Some grammarians said: the implied meaning is, "and Ya'qub also advised his sons," so it is an addition to "Ibrahim." Some others said: it is an independent statement with his saying: "O my sons," so the implied meaning of the speech is: "and Ya'qub said: O my sons." Here, he chose the meaning of selecting the best of religions, and the definite article in "the religion" is for specification, as they had already known it. The phrase "Indeed, after bequeathing" was broken; because it is in the meaning of the saying, and therefore the "that" which is implied by "he advised" was omitted in his saying: "that O my sons." Ibn Mas'ud and al-Dahhak read: "that O my sons" with the affirmation of "that."

His saying: ﴿So do not die except while you are Muslims﴾ is a concise expression, as the intent behind it is to command them to embrace Islam and to remain steadfast in it. Thus, it was presented in a brief wording that conveys the intent and includes admonition and reminder about death. (p-356) This is because a person realizes that he will die and does not know when. So, if he commands something, death will only come to him while he is upon it, and he must remain in a state of readiness from the time of the command. Sibawayh mentioned - in a manner similar to this meaning - their saying: "I will not let you see here," and it is not for the commanded to prevent the realization of the command from him. The intended meaning is: "Go and move away from here," so he came with the intended meaning in a wording that increases the sense of anger and dislike. ﴿while you are Muslims﴾ is a beginning and a predicate in the position of a state.