His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Then We made you upon a Shari'ah of the matter, so follow it and do not follow the desires of those who do not know." "Indeed, they will not avail you against Allah in anything, and indeed, the wrongdoers are allies of one another, but Allah is the ally of the righteous." "This is a clear insight for the people and guidance and mercy for a people who are certain." "Or do those who have earned evil deeds think that We will make them like those who have believed and done righteous deeds, equal in their life and in their death? How evil is that which they judge!"

The meaning: Then We made you upon a Shari'ah, so it is inevitable that there will be differences for you, as it has been the case for the Children of Israel. So follow your Shari'ah. The Shari'ah in the speech of the Arabs is the place where people come to the rivers and waters. From this is the saying of the poet:

And in the Shari'ah of Jilan is a hunter, Worn-out clothes, hidden person, withdrawn.

So the Shari'ah of religion is from that, as if it is from where people return to the command of Allah and His mercy and nearness to Him. And Qatadah said: The Shari'ahs are the obligations, the limits, the command, and the prohibition. And His saying, exalted is He: "of the matter" may be understood as one of the matters, meaning: from the religion of Allah, exalted is He, and the prophecies that He spread in ancient times. It may also be understood as a source of a command, meaning: upon a Shari'ah of commands and prohibitions. So Allah, exalted is He, named all of that a matter. And "those who do not know" are the disbelievers who wanted to divert Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, to their desires. And "they will not avail you" means: they will not have any defense for you. Then He belittled the status of the wrongdoers, referring to the disbelievers of Quraysh. The way of belittlement is that He, blessed and exalted is He, said: These ones are allies of one another, while the righteous are under the protection of Allah, exalted is He. They have exited from the protection of Allah, exalted is He, and He has disassociated Himself from them, and Allah, exalted is He, has left them to one another.

And His saying, exalted is He: "This is a clear insight for the people" refers to the Qur'an. And "insights" is the plural of "basirah," which is the firm belief in something, as if it is a source of the sight of the heart. The Qur'an contains clear signs that should be insights. And "basirah" in the speech of the Arabs means the way of blood, and from this is the saying of the poet:

They went with their insights upon their shoulders, And my insight is pursued by a hunter.

And the people interpreted this verse in the way of blood; as it was customary for a seeker of blood among them to make a path of blood behind his back to know that he has not attained his revenge and that he seeks it, [and it shows that he wants the insight of the heart, meaning: he has cast those insights behind his back].

And His saying, exalted is He: "Or do they think" is a statement that implies it was revealed because of the pride that the disbelievers had over the believers. They said: "If the Hereafter is as you claim, we will certainly have superiority over you in it as we have had superiority in this world." And this "Or" is not a contradiction, but it means "rather" with the interrogative 'alif'. And "they have committed" means: they have earned. From it is the limbs of a person and the limbs of the prey. The Arabs say: "So-and-so is the earner of his people," meaning: their provider. Most of the reciters read: "Equal" in the nominative, "their life and their death" in the nominative. This is based on the fact that "Equal" is raised by the beginning, and "their life and their death" is its news. And "like those" is in the position of the second object for "we make". This is based on one of two meanings: either the pronoun in "their life" is specific to the disbelievers who are committing sins, so the sentence would be a report that their state in both times is a state of evil. The second meaning is that the pronoun in "their life" encompasses both groups, and the meaning is that the life of these and their death is equal, and it is noble, and the life of those and their death is equal, and it is not noble. The wording has wrapped this meaning, and the mind of the listener differentiates it, as it has already been established that Allah, exalted is He, would not make these like those. Mujahid said: The believer dies a believer and is resurrected a believer, and the disbeliever dies a disbeliever and is resurrected a disbeliever.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The implication of this speech is that the wording of the verse is news. It appears to me that His saying, exalted is He: "Equal their life and their death" is included in the account of the bad deeds, and this is a good possibility, and the first is also good. Talha and Isa read differently from him: "Equal" in the accusative, "their life and their death" in the nominative. This can be understood in two ways: one of them is that His saying, exalted is He: "like those" is in the position of the second object for "we make" as it is in the reading of the nominative, and His saying, exalted is He: "Equal" is in the accusative based on the pronoun in "we make them". The second way is that His saying, exalted is He: "like those" is intended to be delayed, and His saying, exalted is He: "Equal" is a second object for "we make". In both cases, "their life and their death" is raised with "Equal" as it is the subject. Hamza, Al-Kisai, Hafs from Asim, and Al-Amash read: "Equal" in the accusative, "their life and their death" in the accusative. This is based on the circumstance, or on the basis that "their life" is a substitute for the pronoun in "we make them", meaning: we make their life and their death equal. And this verse encompasses by its wording the state of the sinners from the state of the people of piety. It is a position for the knowledgeable who weep at it. It has been narrated from Al-Rabi' ibn Khaytham that he used to repeat it on the night of Jumu'ah, and likewise from Al-Fudail ibn Iyad, who used to say to himself: I wish I knew which of the two groups you are from. And Al-Thalabi said: This verse was called the weeping of the worshippers.

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

As for its wording, it indicates that the act of disbelief is equivalent to faith, and it is possible that the equivalence is between the act of disbelief and the righteous deeds. Faith may exist in both groups. For this reason, the fearful ones wept, may Allah be pleased with them. As for the verb 'hasiba', His saying, 'that We make them' serves as a substitute for the two objects. And His saying, 'How evil is what they judge' - the word 'what' is a nominalizer, and the meaning is: how evil is the judgment of their judgment.