His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "The foolish among the people will say, 'What has turned them away from their qiblah which they used to face?' Say, 'To Allah belongs the east and the west. He guides whom He wills to a straight path.' And thus We have made you a middle nation, that you may be witnesses over the people and the Messenger will be a witness over you. And We did not make the qiblah which you used to face except to make evident who would follow the Messenger from who would turn back on his heels. And indeed, it is a great thing except for those whom Allah has guided. And Allah would not cause your faith to be lost. Indeed, Allah is, to the people, Kind and Merciful." Allah, the Exalted, has informed in this verse that they will say regarding the matter of the believers turning from Ash-Sham to the Ka'bah: 'What has turned them away?' And 'the foolish' are those with light minds and weak intellects. And foolishness is lightness and frivolity. A foolish garment is one that is not well woven. From this is the saying of Dhī al-Rummah: 'They walked as if the spears had been made light by the passing winds.' Meaning, they were made light. And He specified by His saying: 'among the people' because foolishness can exist in inanimate objects and animals. What is meant by 'the foolish' here is all those who said: 'What has turned them away?' And different groups said it, and there was disagreement regarding their identification. Ibn Abbas said that it was said by the scholars among them, as they came to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and said: 'O Muhammad, what has turned you away from our qiblah? Return to it and we will believe in you,' wanting to cause him fitnah. And Al-Suddi said that some of the Jews and the hypocrites said it in mockery, as they said: 'The man has longed for his homeland.' And a group said that it was said by the disbelievers of Quraysh, as they said: 'What has turned him away from his qiblah? He has not returned to us except for knowing that we are upon the truth, and he will return to our religion entirely.' And 'turned them away' means He diverted them. And the qiblah is the action of facing something. It is like sitting and wearing a garment. And the future has been made the place of the past in His saying: 'They will say,' indicating the continuity of that, and that they will continue in that saying. Ibn Abbas and others have stated that the verse was revealed after their saying.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Say, 'To Allah belongs the east and the west'﴾ is the establishment of evidence. That is: to Him belongs the dominion of the east and the west and what is between them. And ﴿He guides whom He wills﴾ is an indication of Allah's guidance, exalted is He, of this nation to the qiblah of Ibrahim. And the straight path is the way. The scholars differed: Was the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, towards Bayt al-Maqdis by a command from Allah, exalted is He, in the Qur'an, or by revelation that is not recited? Ibn Fowrak mentioned from Ibn Abbas that he said: The first thing that was abrogated from the Qur'an was the qiblah. The majority said: Rather, the command of the qiblah towards Bayt al-Maqdis was by revelation that is not recited. And Al-Rabi' said: The best of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, in the directions was to choose Bayt al-Maqdis to win over the people of the Book. And those who said it was by revelation that is not recited said: This was so that Allah, exalted is He, could test who believed among the Arabs because they were accustomed to the Ka'bah and opposed Bayt al-Maqdis and others. And there was a difference regarding how long he prayed towards Bayt al-Maqdis. In Al-Bukhari, it is mentioned as sixteen or seventeen months. It was narrated from Anas ibn Malik as nine or ten months, and it was narrated from others as thirteen months. And Makki narrated from Ibrahim ibn Ishaq that he said: The first matter of prayer was that it was prescribed in Makkah as two rak'ahs at the beginning of the day and two rak'ahs at its end. Then the Isra' occurred on the night of the seventeenth of the month of Rabi' al-Akhir, a year before the Hijrah, and the five prayers were prescribed, and Gabriel, peace be upon him, led him in prayer. The first prayer was Dhuhr, and the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, faced Bayt al-Maqdis. Then the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, migrated to Madinah in Rabi' al-Awwal and continued facing Bayt al-Maqdis until Rajab of the second year. It was said: until Jumada, and it was said: until half of Sha'ban. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And thus We have made you a middle nation﴾, the 'kaf' is related to the meaning in His saying: ﴿He guides whom He wills﴾. That is: just as We have guided you to the qiblah of Ibrahim and his Shari'ah, so We have made you a nation. And 'nation' is the second object, and 'middle' is an adjective. And 'the nation' refers to the generations of people, and 'middle' means just. This was narrated from the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and it is supported by the phrases of the interpreters. And 'the middle' means the best and the highest of a thing, as you say: the middle of the people, and the middle of the necklace is the most precious stone in it, and the leader is in the middle of the army. And as His saying, exalted is He: ﴿He said, 'The middle of them'﴾ [Al-Qalam: 28]. And 'the middle' with the 's' being silent is an adverb built on the opening, and it has been firmly established in some narrations in the house of Al-Farazdaq: 'So it came with a captive as if his forehead was the prayer of Wurs, the middle of it had split.' With the raising of the 'ta', and the pronoun refers back to the prayer, and it was narrated with the opening of the 'ta', and the pronoun refers back to the coming one. So if you say: I dug in the middle of the house or the middle of the house, the meaning is different. Some scholars said: The nation of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, did not go to extremes in religion as the Jews did, nor did they become lax like the Christians. So it is a middle nation; it is the best and highest of them in this regard. And the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: 'The best of affairs are their middle ones,' means: their best.

And there may be superiority and goodness in a thing either because it is the most precious of its kind, or because it is between excess and deficiency. So it is a choice from this perspective. And "witnesses" is the plural of witness.

The interpreters have differed regarding the intended meaning of "the people" in this context. A group said: they are all of the kind. And the community of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, will bear witness on the Day of Resurrection for the prophets against their nations regarding the conveying of the message. This is because Noah's people will deny him in conveying the message. So the community of Muhammad will say to him: We bear witness for you. And they will bear witness. Then Allah will say to them: How did you bear witness to what you did not witness? They will say: O our Lord, your Messenger came to us, and your Book descended to us, so we bear witness to what you entrusted to us and informed us of. Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, will say: You have spoken the truth.

And a sound hadith has been narrated in this regard from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and it has been narrated from him that "his community will bear witness for every prophet whose people denied him." Mujahid said: The meaning of the verse is: You bear witness for Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, that he conveyed to the people in his time from the Jews, Christians, and Magians. And a group said: The meaning of the verse is: Some of you will bear witness against others after death, as the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said when a funeral passed by him and he praised it with good, saying: "It is obligatory." Then he passed by another and praised it with evil, saying: "It is obligatory," meaning Paradise and Hell. He was asked about that and said: "You are the witnesses of Allah on earth," and it has been narrated in some chains that he recited: "So that you may be witnesses against the people."

And "the Messenger will be a witness against you" has been said to mean: by your deeds on the Day of Resurrection. It has been said: that he will bear witness against you for conveying to you. And it has been said: against you meaning: for you, that is, he will bear witness for you regarding faith.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "And We did not make the qiblah which you were upon"—the verse—Qatadah, Al-Suddi, Ata, and others said: The qiblah here is Bayt al-Maqdis, and the meaning is: We did not make it when We commanded you to it at first except as a trial, to know who would follow you from the Arabs who are accustomed to the mosque of Mecca, or from the Jews, as Al-Dahhak said, that "the scholars said to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: Indeed, Bayt al-Maqdis is the qiblah of the prophets. If you pray towards it, we will follow you." So Allah commanded him to pray towards it as a test for them, but they did not believe.

And some who mentioned the qiblah of Bayt al-Maqdis said: The meaning is: And We did not make the turning of the qiblah which you were upon and its changing, so the added part was omitted and the part to which it is added took its place. Ibn Abbas said: The qiblah in the verse is the Kaaba, and "you were" means "you are," as His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "You are the best nation brought forth for the people" [Al-Imran: 110], meaning you are. That is: And We did not make it and turn you towards it except as a trial.

And it has been narrated regarding that that "when the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, was turned towards the Kaaba, the Jews and the hypocrites increased in that, and some of the believers doubted until the verse was revealed." And Ibn Jurayj said: I have been informed that some of those who had embraced Islam reverted from Islam.

And the meaning of His saying, exalted is He: "So that We may know" is: so that My Messenger and the believers in him may know. The attribution came with the sons of greatness since they are His party and His special ones. This is common in the speech of the Arabs, as you say: 'Umar opened Iraq and collected its taxes.' However, it was his soldiers and followers who did that. This is a form of metonymy when the knowledge of Allah, exalted is He, is mentioned in a present tense because it is ancient and has always existed.

Another aspect is that Allah, exalted is He, knew in the beginning who would follow the Messenger, and the knowledge continued until their occurrences took place. It continued at the time of following and turning away, and it will continue after that. Allah, exalted is He, is characterized in all of this by His knowledge.

So He meant by His saying: "So that We may know" the mention of His knowledge at the time of their obedience and disobedience. For at that time, reward and punishment are attached. Thus, the meaning of "So that We may know" is not to begin knowledge, but rather the meaning is so that We may know that which exists.

Ibn Furak narrated that the meaning of "So that We may know" is: so that We may reward. The meaning is: so that We may know in a state in which they deserve the reward. He attached knowledge to their actions to strengthen the proof and to establish what He knew, without any opposition to them in it.

Ibn Furak also narrated that the meaning of "So that We may know" is: so that We may distinguish. Al-Tabari mentioned this from Ibn Abbas.

Al-Tabari also narrated that the meaning of "So that We may know" is: so that We may see. All of this is close in meaning, and the principle is the negation of the reception of knowledge after it did not exist.

Al-Zuhri read: "So that he may know" in a way that does not specify its doer.

And "turning back on their heels" is an expression for the apostate who returns from what he was in of faith or occupation or otherwise. The return on the heels is the worst state of the one who turns back in his walk from his direction. Therefore, the apostate in religion is likened to this. The apparent meaning of the analogy is that it is like the one who is retreating, which is the walk of an animal frightened by something that has approached it. It is possible that this analogy is for the one who turned his back and walked backward, for at the time of his turning back, he indeed turns on his heels.

And His saying, exalted is He: "And if it was great"—the pronoun in "was" refers back to the qiblah, to Bayt al-Maqdis, or to the turning to the Ka'bah according to what we have mentioned of the differences regarding the qiblah. Ibn Zayd said: it refers back to the prayer which was performed towards Bayt al-Maqdis. And Allah, exalted is He, testified in this verse for those who follow the guidance. And "great" here means: burdensome, difficult, and significant in the hearts. And "if" is the lightened form of the heavy form, and therefore the lam is necessary to remove the ambiguity between it and the negating one. If the heaviness appears in "if," then perhaps the lam is necessary and perhaps it is not. Al-Farra' said: "if" means "what" and the lam is like "except."

(p-372) And when the qiblah was changed, it was said by the Jews: 'O Muhammad, if the first one was true, then you are now upon falsehood, and if this one is true, then you were in the first one upon misguidance.' So some of the believers felt a pang of anxiety, and they were concerned for those who had died before the change regarding their previous prayers. Then was revealed: ﴿And Allah would not cause your faith to be lost﴾.

And He addressed those present, and the intended meaning is those who were present and those who had died, because the present ones prevail, as the Arabs say: 'Did we not kill you in such and such a place?' And the one addressed was not killed, but he prevailed due to his presence. And Al-Dahhak read 'to cause to be lost' with a فتح (fath) on the د and a شَدّ (shaddah) on the ي.

Ibn Abbas, Al-Bara' ibn Azib, Qatadah, Al-Suddi, Al-Rabi', and others said: Faith here refers to prayer, and prayer is called faith because it stems from faith and belief at the time of Bayt al-Maqdis and at the time of the change.

And when faith is the core upon which actions revolve, and it was established in the state of direction here, He mentioned it as it is the foundation by which one returns in prayer and other matters to the commands and prohibitions.

And so that the prayer of the hypocrites towards Bayt al-Maqdis does not fall under the name of prayer, He mentioned the meaning which is the essence of the matter.

And also it was called faith since it is one of the branches of faith.

(p-373) And compassion is the highest rank of mercy. And a group read: 'Indeed, He is compassionate' in the form of فَعُل (fa'ul), and from it is the saying of Al-Walid ibn 'Uqbah:

'And the worst of the seekers - and do not be like him - is the one who kills his compassionate and merciful uncle.'

The Arabs say: 'Compassionate' and 'merciful' - and 'ra'if' like 'hadhir' - and 'ra'fa'. And Abu Ja'far ibn Al-Qaqa' read: 'Indeed, He is compassionate' without a hamzah, and likewise he facilitated every hamzah in the Book of Allah, glorified and exalted is He; whether it was silent or moving.