His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿Say, 'If you conceal what is in your breasts or reveal it, Allah knows it. He knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth. And Allah is All-Powerful over everything.'﴾

﴿On the Day when every soul will find what it has done of good present, and what it has done of evil, it will wish that between it and that evil there were a great distance. And Allah warns you of Himself. And Allah is Kind to the servants.﴾

The pronoun in 'conceal' refers to the believers who were forbidden from taking the disbelievers as allies. The meaning is: If you hide the eagerness to show your allegiance to them, then Allah knows that and dislikes it from you. And His saying: ﴿And He knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth﴾ means in detail. And His saying: ﴿And Allah is All-Powerful over everything﴾ is general, and the term 'thing' in the speech of the Arabs refers to what exists.

And 'On the Day' is in the accusative case, and there has been a difference regarding what governs it. Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib said: What governs it is 'All-Powerful.' And al-Ṭabarī said: What governs it is His saying: ﴿And to Allah is the final return﴾ [Aal 'Imran: 28]. And al-Zajjāj also said this. He also said: What governs it is (And Allah warns you of Himself on the Day). He preferred this. And Makkī narrated that what governs it is an implied verb, its estimation being: 'Mention the Day.' And 'what' means 'that which,' and 'present' means, according to Qatādah: 'available.' This is an interpretation by meaning, and presence is clearer than to be interpreted by another word.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And what it has done of evil﴾ it is possible that 'what' is conjoined to the first 'what' and is in the accusative case, and 'it will wish' is in the state of the circumstance. Al-Ṭabarī and others went to this conjunction. It is also possible that it is in the nominative case by the beginning, and the news is in His saying 'it will wish,' as if he said: And its evil deed is rejected by it, that there is a distance between it and that.

And in the reading of Ibn Mas'ūd: 'of evil, it wished,' and likewise Ibn Abī 'Ablah read. And it is permissible in this reading that 'what' is conditional, and this is not permissible in the reading of 'it will wish' because the verb is future and raised, and the condition necessitates its being in the jussive. Unless it is estimated in the speech that something is omitted: 'So it wishes,' and in that there is weakness. The term 'distance' refers to the limited extent of place or time. Al-Nābiġah said:

؎ ....................... The lead of the horse when it has taken over the distance.

So this is a limit in place. And al-Ṭirmāḥ said:

؎ Every living being completes the number of its years and is mourned when its time has passed.

So this is a limit in time.

And al-Ḥasan said in the interpretation of this verse: One of them would be pleased not to encounter that deed ever. That is his desire, and as for in this world, his sin was something he relished.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "And Allah is Most Kind to the servants" may indicate a warning. This is because His warning and alerting them to salvation is a kindness from Him to His servants. It may also be the beginning of informing them of this attribute. The implication of that is reassurance, so that the threat does not overwhelm any believer. The verse comes in a manner similar to His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "Indeed, your Lord is Severe in punishment and indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful." This is because His saying: "And Allah warns you of Himself" means: And Allah is to be feared regarding punishment.