His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿Our Lord is He who gave everything its creation, then guided﴾ ﴿He said, then what is the matter with the former generations?﴾ ﴿He said, their knowledge is with my Lord in a Book; my Lord does not err nor forget﴾. Moses, peace be upon him, was decisive in his answer as he specifically addressed the question. Then he informed him of the attributes of Allah in which there is no partnership for Pharaoh in it nor in any metaphorical sense. The interpreters differed regarding His saying: ﴿He who gave everything its creation﴾. A group said: Allah gave the male from every animal - its kind and its creation - a female, then guided for coming forth. Another group said: Allah gave every existent from His creations its creation and its form, meaning He perfected that for it and made it precise. Then guided means: He facilitated everything for its benefits and uses. Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This saying has a more noble meaning and is more comprehensive regarding existents. And a group read: "خَلَقَهُ" with the opening of the letter 'lam', and the second object of "أعْطى" is implied, its implication being: its perfection or its benefit. And Pharaoh's saying: ﴿Then what is the matter with the former generations?﴾ may imply that he intends to argue based on what has preceded of the saying and its contradiction therein. It does not seem that he intends by this except: what is the matter with the former generations that they were not sent and your matter was not present among them? So Moses, peace be upon him, referred the knowledge of that to Allah, the Exalted. It is possible that Pharaoh intended to cut off the first speech and return to Moses's question about those who preceded from the people, as a diversion in the argument and a retreat. It is said: "البالُ" means the state, so it is as if he asked him about their state, as it has come in the hadith: "May Allah guide you and rectify your state." And Al-Nikash said: Pharaoh said: ﴿Then what is the matter with the former generations?﴾ because he heard the believer of Pharaoh's people saying: ﴿O my people, I fear for you the like of the Day of the Confederates﴾ [Ghafir: 30] (p-100) ﴿the like of the deed of the people of Noah and 'Aad﴾ [Ghafir: 31] the verse, and Moses referred the knowledge to Allah because the Torah had not yet come to him. And his saying: ﴿in a Book﴾ means the Preserved Tablet, or in what the angels have written of the states of mankind. And a group read: "لا يَضِلُّ" with the opening of the 'ya' and the breaking of the 'dad', and there was a difference in the meaning of this reading. A group said: It is the beginning of a speech, a glorification of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, from these two attributes, and the speech was completed in His saying: "in a Book", and "يَضِلُّ" means: is lost. Another group said: Rather His saying: ﴿My Lord does not err nor forget﴾ is from the attribute of the Book, meaning that the Book does not escape Allah, the Exalted. The Arabs say: "I was lost by the thing" if I did not find it, and "I lost it". And from it is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, in the narration of the Israelite who requested to be burned after his death: "Perhaps I can cause Allah to forget" the hadith. ﴿And does not forget﴾ indicates that the pronoun returns to Allah, the Exalted, and it is possible that it returns to the Book in some (p-101) interpretations, describing it as not forgetting, meaning: does not leave anything out. Thus, forgetfulness here is a metaphor, as he said in another place: ﴿Except that He has enumerated it﴾ [Al-Kahf: 49], so he described it with enumeration in which the incidents are confined.