His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. And if you disclose what is within yourselves or conceal it, Allah will bring you to account for it. Then He will forgive whom He wills and punish whom He wills. And Allah is over all things competent.﴾

The meaning: All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth belongs to Allah and is in obedience to Him, for He is the Creator and the Inventor, and there is no Lord other than Him. He expressed it with 'what' even though there are those who reason, because the majority is indeed inanimate and animal, which do not reason. The number of those who reason is few, as there are only three kinds: angels, humans, and jinn - while the kinds of others are many.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿And if you disclose what is within yourselves or conceal it, Allah will bring you to account for it.﴾ The meaning is that the matter is the same; concealment and hiding are of no benefit in it. Rather, He knows it and will hold you accountable for it. And His saying: ﴿Within yourselves﴾ implies that the strength of the wording indicates what has been established in the soul, believed in, and the thought has been accompanied by it. As for the thoughts that cannot be repelled, they are not in the soul except in a figurative sense.

People have differed in the meaning of this verse - Ibn Abbas, Ikrimah, and Al-Sha'bi said: It is in the meaning of the testimony that one is forbidden to conceal. Then it was made known in this verse that the one who conceals it, hiding it within himself, will be held accountable. Ibn Abbas also said, along with Abu Hurairah, Al-Sha'bi, and a group of the companions and followers: 'When this verse was revealed, it was difficult for the companions of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and they said: We are doomed, O Messenger of Allah, if we are held accountable for the thoughts of our souls. And this was difficult for the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, but he said to them: Do you want to say as the Children of Israel said: We have heard and disobeyed? Rather, say: We have heard and we obeyed - and they said it. Then Allah revealed after that: ﴿Allah does not burden a soul except with that within its capacity.﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 286] So He relieved them of the burden, and Allah abrogated that verse with this one.' This is the meaning of the narrated hadith, and it has various routes from different sources, and the expressions have differed, but the expression of these speakers has been established with the wording of abrogation in this incident.

Said Ibn Marjanah said: I came to Abdullah ibn Umar and he recited this verse: ﴿And if you disclose what is within yourselves or conceal it, Allah will bring you to account for it﴾. Then he said: By Allah, if we are taken by this verse, we will certainly perish. Then he cried until his tears flowed and his sobbing was heard. Ibn Marjanah said: I stood up until I came to Ibn Abbas and informed him of what Ibn Umar said and what he did. He said: May Allah have mercy on Abu Abdur-Rahman. The Muslims found in it, when it was revealed, something similar to what Abdullah ibn Umar found. So Allah revealed: ﴿Allah does not burden a soul except with that within its capacity﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 286]. Thus, it abrogated the whispering and the saying and action remained. Al-Tabari said, and others said: This verse is decisive and not abrogated. And Allah, the Exalted, will hold His creation accountable for what they have done of deeds and for what they have not done of what is established in their souls, which they concealed, intended, and desired. He forgives the believers and holds the disbelievers and hypocrites accountable. Then he narrated from Ibn Abbas something similar to this meaning. Mujahid said: The verse concerns what arises in the souls of doubt and certainty. Al-Hasan said: The verse is decisive and not abrogated. Al-Tabari said: And others said something similar to this meaning which was mentioned from Ibn Abbas. However, they said: The punishment that will be a recompense for what has crossed the mind and accompanied the thought is through the calamities of this world, its pains, and all its hardships. Then he narrated from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, something similar to this meaning. Al-Tabari preferred that the verse is decisive and not abrogated.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is because His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And if you disclose what is within yourselves or conceal it﴾ means: of what is within your capacity and under your control. This is the holding onto the belief and thought in it. When the wording is such that it can include thoughts, the companions and the Prophet ﷺ were apprehensive. So Allah, the Exalted, clarified to them what He meant by the first verse and specified it. He stated in His ruling that He does not burden a soul except with its capacity. And the thoughts are not within that nor is repelling them within capacity, rather it is a dominant matter, and it is not something that can be earned or acquired. And in this clarification was their joy and the lifting of their distress, and the rest of the verse is decisive, with no abrogation in it.

And among what refutes the matter of abrogation is that the verse is a report, and reports are not subject to abrogation. If someone were to insist on the establishment of abrogation, it would only pertain to the ruling that affected the Companions when they were alarmed by the verse. This is because the Prophet's saying to them: "Say, we have heard and we obey" comes as a command for them to remain steadfast on this and adhere to it, and to await Allah's kindness in forgiveness. If this ruling is established, then the occurrence of abrogation in it is correct. The verse would then resemble His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿If there are twenty of you who are patient, they will overcome two hundred﴾ [Al-Anfal: 65]. This is the wording of the report, but its meaning is: adhere to this, remain steadfast upon it, and be patient according to it. Then that was abrogated, and the people have unanimously agreed - as far as I know - that this verse regarding jihad is abrogated by the patience of one hundred against two hundred, and this verse in Al-Baqarah is most similar to it.

Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Abu 'Amr, Hamzah, and Al-Kisai read: "So He forgives whom He wills and punishes" in the indicative mood. Ibn 'Amir and 'Asim read: "So He forgives and punishes" in the nominative mood. The reason for the indicative is that it follows what came before it and does not break it, and thus the correspondence in their speech is good. The reason for the nominative is that it is cut off from the first - and its cutting off is in one of two ways - either you make the verb a report for an omitted subject, so the verb rises due to its position as a report of the subject, or you conjoin a sentence of verb and subject to what preceded it. Ibn 'Abbas, Al-A'raj, and Abu Haywah read: "So He forgives and punishes" in the accusative mood, implying "that" and it is conjoined in meaning as in His saying: "So He multiplies it." Al-Ju'fi, Khalad, and Talhah ibn Musarif read: "He forgives" without a conjunction, and it has been narrated that it is likewise in the Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud. Ibn Jinni said: It is in place of "He will hold you accountable," so it explains the accountability. This is like the poet's saying:

Slowly, O sons of Shayban, regarding some of your threats, you will meet tomorrow my horses on the plain.

You will meet steeds that do not deviate from the battle when they are in the dire straits.

This is in place of the substitution, and the poet repeated the verb because the benefit is in what follows in the saying.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And punishes whom He wills﴾ means from the sinners upon whom the warning is enacted. Al-Naqqash said: He forgives whom He wills, meaning whom He removes from it, and punishes whom He wills, meaning whom He holds accountable. Sufyan Al-Thawri said: He forgives whom He wills for the major sins, and punishes whom He wills for the minor ones. Some people have relied on this regarding the permissibility of imposing what cannot be borne, and they said: Indeed, Allah has imposed upon them the matter of thoughts, and that is something that cannot be borne.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is not clear, and the matter of thoughts was an interpretation that the companions of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, interpreted. There has not been established an obligation except in the manner we mentioned, which is the establishment of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, of them upon that. We will discuss the issue of imposing what cannot be borne later, if Allah, glorified and exalted is He, wills.

And when he mentioned forgiveness and punishment according to His will, glorified and exalted is He, he followed that by mentioning the power over all things, as he did not mention a part of it.