His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And from wherever you go out, turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque. And wherever you are, turn your faces toward it, so that there will be no argument against you from the people, except for those who have wronged among them. So do not fear them, but fear Me, and that I may complete My favor upon you and perhaps you will be guided." "As We have sent among you a Messenger from yourselves, reciting to you Our verses and purifying you and teaching you the Book and wisdom and teaching you that which you did not know."

His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "So turn your faces toward it," is an obligation to face the qiblah for the worshippers. The obligation of the one praying, as long as he sees the Ka'bah, is to face it in his prayer. If it is hidden from him, then his obligation is to strive to face it. If he strives and then it is revealed to him that he was mistaken, there is nothing upon him according to many of the scholars. Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, held that he should repeat in the time of prayer to attain the virtue of facing the qiblah.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "So that there will be no argument against you from the people," Nafi' alone read it with the easing of the hamzah, while the others read "so that" with the hamzah. The meaning is: I have informed you of the correct direction in your qiblah, and the argument in that is "so that." And His saying: "for the people" is general, including the Jews, Arabs, and others. It is said that the intended meaning of the people is the Jews, and then the disbelievers of the Arabs are excluded. His saying: "among them" refutes this interpretation.

A group said: "Except for those who" is an exception that is disconnected, and this is with the condition that the people are only the Jews. We have mentioned the weakness of this statement. The meaning is: But those who have wronged refers to the disbelievers of Quraysh in their saying: Muhammad has returned to our qiblah and he will return to our entire religion, and included in that is everyone who spoke about the incident from non-Jews.

Ibn Abbas, Zayd ibn Ali, and Ibn Zayd read: "Except that" with the hamzah opened and the lam softened, meaning as an introduction to a statement. Thus, "those who" would be a beginning, or it could mean incitement towards them, making "those who" accusative due to an implied verb.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "So do not fear them, but fear Me," is a belittling of their status and a command to disregard their matter and to regard His matter. His saying: "And that I may complete" is connected to His saying: "so that," and it is said that it is a separate statement in the position of a subject with an implied predicate afterward, and the estimation is: "So that I may complete My favor upon you, I have informed you of My qiblah and the like." "And perhaps you will be guided" is a hope regarding humanity. The kaf in His saying "as" is a response to His saying: "that I may complete," meaning completion as, and this is the best of the statements, meaning: "So that I may complete My favor upon you in clarifying the Sunnah of Ibrahim, peace be upon him." "As We have sent among you a Messenger from yourselves" is a response to his supplication in His saying: "Our Lord, and send among them a Messenger from themselves" [Al-Baqarah: 129]. It is said that the kaf of "as" is a response to "you will be guided," meaning guidance as, and it is said that it is in the position of an accusative for the state. It is said that it means delay, relating to His saying: "So remember Me."

And this verse is a discourse for the nation of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and he is the one meant by his saying: ﴿A Messenger from among you﴾. And "yatlū" is in the accusative case as an adjective. The verses are the Qur'an, and "yuzakkīkum" means He purifies you from disbelief and causes you to grow in obedience. And "the Book" is the Qur'an, and "the Wisdom" is what is received from him, peace be upon him, in the Sunnah and understanding of the religion.

And ﴿what you did not know﴾ refers to the stories of those who have passed and the stories of what will come from the unseen.