His saying, exalted and glorious is He:

﴿And the Day He calls them, He will say, 'What did you answer the messengers?'﴾ ﴿And the news became unclear to them that Day, so they do not ask one another.﴾ ﴿So as for one who repents, believes, and does righteous deeds, perhaps he will be among the successful.﴾ ﴿And your Lord creates what He wills and chooses; there is no choice for them. Glorified is Allah and exalted above what they associate.﴾

This calling is also like the first in its possibility of an intermediary from the angels. This calling is also for the disbelievers, making them aware of what they answered the messengers who called them to Allah, glorified and exalted is He. ﴿And the news became unclear to them﴾ means: the matters became darkened, so they found no news to inform them of what would save them. The verb is in the past tense to confirm its occurrence and that it has been determined. The past tense of actions is certain, therefore its form is placed instead of the certain future tense, so its occurrence and correctness are strengthened. Its meaning is: its directions became darkened. Al-Amash read: "فَعُمِّيَتْ" with a dammed 'ain and a doubled 'mim'. It has been narrated in some hadith: "Allah was in obscurity" before He created the lights and other creatures. And "the news" is the plural of "news." And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿So they do not ask one another﴾ means, according to Mujahid and others: about the wombs and the relations which are known in this world to be inquired about; because they have become certain that none of them has any means or status. It is possible that He means that they do not ask about the news due to their certainty that they have no proof.

Then He, exalted is He, extracted from the disbelievers whoever repented from his disbelief, believed in Allah and His messengers, and acted with piety, hoping that they would attain their desire and remain in eternal bliss. Many scholars said: "Perhaps" from Allah is obligatory.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a good opinion of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, resembling His grace and generosity. The necessary implication of "perhaps" is that it is a hopeful (p-605) not obligatory. In the Book of Allah, exalted and glorious is He: ﴿Perhaps your Lord, if He divorces you﴾ [At-Tahrim: 5].

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And your Lord creates what He wills and chooses﴾, it was said: The reason for it is what Quraysh spoke of in astonishment at the matter of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and the saying of some of them: ﴿Why was this Qur'an not sent down to a great man from the two cities?﴾ [Az-Zukhruf: 31]. This verse was revealed because of those disputes, and Allah, exalted is He, responded to them, informing that He creates from His servants and all His creatures what He wills, and that He chooses for His message whom He wants and places in him the benefit. Then He negated that the choice is for people in this and similar matters. This is the saying of a group of the interpreters, who said: that "what" is negating, meaning: they do not have the choice from Allah, blessed and exalted is He. Thus the verse comes like His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And it is not for a believer or a believeress when Allah and His Messenger have decreed﴾ [Al-Ahzab: 36].

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: It is possible that He means: and Allah, exalted is He, chooses the religions and laws, and they do not have the choice to incline towards idols and similar things in worship. This interpretation is supported by His saying: ﴿Glorified is Allah and exalted above what they associate.﴾

Al-Tabari went to the opinion that "what" in His saying: ﴿And He chooses what was﴾ is a verbal noun. He said: The meaning is that the disbelievers used to choose from their wealth for their idols the best of it. So Allah, glorified and exalted is He, informed that the choice is solely for Him. He creates and chooses from the messengers and the laws what is best for the people, not as they choose what is not for them, and they do what they were not commanded to do.

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

Al-Tabari excused the raising that all the reciters agreed upon in His saying: ﴿They had no choice﴾ with statements that do not hold. The people have responded to him regarding that, and he mentioned from Al-Farra that Al-Qasim ibn Ma'n recited a verse of Antarah:

Is there from Sumayyah a tear of the eye that flows, if this were known from you before today?

And he linked the verse to this line, and the narration in the line is: (If this were), but according to what Al-Qasim narrated, it is directed in the line of Antarah that it could be the pronoun of the matter and the affair. As for in the verse, there is not a total omission in it, and there is a consideration in all of this.

And the stopping on what the majority of the people went to in His saying: ﴿And He chooses﴾, and on what Al-Tabari went to, one does not stop on that.

It seems to me that "what" is a verbal noun if we consider "was" to be complete, meaning that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, chooses every existent, and nothing occurs except by His permission. And His saying, blessed and exalted is He: ﴿They have the choice﴾ is a separate statement, the meaning of which is the enumeration of the blessing upon them in Allah's choice for them if they had accepted and understood.