His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And when those who disbelieved see you, they take you not except in mockery. Is this the one who mentions your gods, and they are, by the mention of the Most Merciful, disbelievers?﴾ ﴿Man was created of haste. I will show you My signs, so do not hasten for them.﴾ ﴿And they say, When is this promise, if you should be among the truthful?﴾

It has been narrated that Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and Abu Jahl ibn Hisham saw the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, in the mosque and mocked him, so the verse was revealed because of them. The apparent meaning of the verse is that the disbelievers of Quraysh and their leaders are included in this meaning, that they deny the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding their gods, and his mention of them as corrupt. And "If" means "what," and in the speech, there is an omission, the estimation of which is: they say: Is this the one? And His saying: "mentions" is a term that encompasses both praise and blame, but the context of the speech always indicates the intended meaning of the mention, and what was reported from them in His saying: "your gods."

Then He responded to them by associating their denial of the mention of idols with their disbelief in the mention of Allah. That is, they are more deserving of blame, and they are the ones who are wrong. And His saying, exalted is He: "by the mention of" means: by that which should be mentioned, and "there is no deity except Allah" is from Him. And His saying, glorified is He: ﴿by the mention of the Most Merciful﴾, it has been narrated that the verse was revealed when they denied this term and said: We do not know the Most Merciful except by Yamamah. The apparent meaning of the speech is that "the Most Merciful" is intended to refer to Allah, exalted is He, as if He said: and they are by the mention of Allah. And this interpretation deepens their misguidance and error.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Man was created of haste﴾ is a prelude to responding to them regarding their hastening for the punishment and their request for a proposed sign, which is associated with a decisive punishment if they disbelieve after that. And He described mankind, which is the name of the genus, as being created of haste, and this is in the sense of exaggeration, as when you say to a lazy man: You are of play and amusement, and as the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "I am not of the Dadd, nor is the Dadd of me." And this is similar to the poet's saying:

And we, when we strike the ram a blow to its head, cast the tongue upon the mouth.

As if they were of those who were accustomed to striking the head, and the association with striking, he said: They are of the striking.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this interpretation completes the intended meaning of the verse in that their hastiness is condemned, and they were told in the context of the warning: The signs will come, so do not hasten for them. And some of the interpreters said regarding His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Man was created of haste﴾: It is on the contrary, as if He meant: Haste was created from man, in the sense that it has been made a nature of his natures and a part of his morals.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this interpretation does not contain exaggeration, but it is merely a straightforward report. And those who carried it were led by their lack of a way of metaphor and analogy in that the speech remains in its order, and an example of this inversion that they mentioned is the saying of the Arabs: "When the Pleiades rise, the reed becomes upright on the lizard," and as they said: "The she-camel was presented at the watering place," and as the poet said:

I have bared my hand from the garment, taking it as a single piece that is dragged by the hands of the rescuers.

As for the meaning in the interpretation of one who sees the words from the inverted, it is like the meaning we have presented. A group of the interpreters said: His saying, "Man was created from haste," means that Allah, the Exalted, created Adam, peace be upon him, in the last hour of the day of Friday, and he hastened it before the sun set. Some of them narrated that Adam, peace be upon him, said: O my Lord, complete my creation, for the sun is about to set or has set.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a weak saying, and its meaning does not correspond with the meaning of the verse. Another group said: Haste means clay, and the meaning is: Adam was created from clay. The naqash recited:

................... and the palm tree grows between water and haste.

This is also a weak saying that contradicts the meaning of the verse. Another group said: The meaning of "Man was created from haste" is by His saying, the Exalted, "Be," so it is a state of hastiness.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is also a weak saying, and it specifies the son of Adam with something that every creature shares with him. There is nothing in these sayings whose meaning is valid and aligns with the verse except for the first saying.

A group read: "Man was created" in the passive form, and a group read: "Allah created man" meaning: Allah created man. Thus, the meaning of the verse as a whole, "Man was created from haste," is in the sense of astonishment at the hastiness of those intended in the response. Then He warned them by saying: "I will show you My signs," meaning: what will distress you if you die upon your disbelief, referring to the Day of Badr and others. Then He explained their hastiness by their saying: "When is this promise?" Their questioning was in the context of mockery and denial, and their saying: "If you are truthful" refers to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and those who believed in him; for the believers used to threaten them through the tongue of the law. The position of "when" is nominative according to the Basrians, while some of the Kufans said: Its position is accusative as a circumstance, and the acting verb is an implied action, its estimation being: it will be or it will come, and the first is more correct.