His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Whoever does a righteous deed, it is for his own soul; and whoever does evil, it is against it. Then to your Lord you will be returned." "And We certainly gave the Children of Israel the Scripture, and the judgment, and the prophethood, and We provided them with good things, and We preferred them over the worlds." "And We gave them clear proofs of the matter, and they did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of transgression among themselves. Indeed, your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that in which they used to differ." When it was established in the verse before this that Allah rewards a people for their deeds and punishes them for their sins and transgressions, He confirmed that with His saying, exalted is He: "Whoever does a righteous deed, it is for his own soul." His saying, exalted is He: "it is for his own soul" indicates the lam of benefit, because benefits and favors are expressed with the lam which is the speech of the king. You say: "The matters are favorable for Zayd," and the opposite is expressed with "against," as you say: "The matters are difficult for so-and-so," and you say: "For Zayd is wealth, and against him is a debt." Likewise, the righteous deed is mentioned here with the lam, and the evil deed with "against." His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "Then to your Lord you will be returned" means: to His judgment and decree. The Scripture in His saying, exalted is He: "And We certainly gave the Children of Israel the Scripture" is the Torah, and "the judgment" is the Sunnah and jurisprudence. It is said that the understanding of rulings was not as expansive on the tongue of any prophet as it was on the tongue of Musa, blessings and peace be upon him. And the prophethood is what was repeated among them from the prophets, blessings be upon them. His saying, exalted is He: "And We provided them with good things" means: the lawful delights. With this, the blessing is completed, and it is good to enumerate it. This is a reference to the manna and quails, and the good things of the Levant, as it is the blessed land. The saying has previously been discussed regarding the meaning of good things. The summary of the words of Malik and ash-Shafi'i regarding that. And His saying, exalted is He: "over the worlds" means: over the world of their time. The "clear proofs of the matter" is the revelation by which matters were detailed for them. Then He, exalted is He, clarified their error and magnified it with His saying, exalted is He: "And they did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of transgression among themselves." This is because if they had differed out of striving to seek the truth, they would have had an excuse for differing. However, they differed out of transgression while the truths had become clear to them. Then He, exalted is He, warned them of stopping their affair at His judgment between them on the Day of Resurrection.