His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "They said, 'O our people, indeed we have heard a Book that was sent down after Moses, confirming what was before it, guiding to the truth and to a straight path.'" "O our people, respond to the caller of Allah and believe in Him. He will forgive you of your sins and protect you from a painful punishment." "And whoever does not respond to the caller of Allah, there is no one to save him in the earth, and he will have no allies besides Him. Those are in clear error." "Have they not seen that Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and did not tire of creating them, is able to give life to the dead? Yes, indeed, He is over all things competent." The meaning: These warners said when they reached their people: "O our people, indeed we have heard a Book that was sent down after Moses," and it is the great Qur'an. They specified Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, for one of two reasons: either because this group was following the religion of the Jews, or because they knew that Moses, peace be upon him, had mentioned Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and had given glad tidings of him. So they referred to Moses, peace be upon him, from where the matter was mentioned in his Torah. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said in the book of Al-Tha'labi: They did not know the matter of Jesus, peace be upon him, and that is why they said: "after Moses," and their saying: "confirming what was before it" supports this. And "what was before it" refers to the Torah and the Gospel. And "the truth" and "the straight path" here have a similar meaning, but in terms of differing in wording - and perhaps the truth is more general - it is as if one of them may occur in places where the other does not, which is good for repetition. And "the caller of Allah" is Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and the pronoun in: "in Him" refers back to Allah, the Most High. And His saying, the Most High: "He will forgive you" means: Allah will forgive you. And His saying: "and He will protect you" means: He will prevent you and place a protective barrier around you so that punishment does not reach you. And His saying, the Most High: "And whoever does not respond to the caller of Allah," this verse may be from the words of the warners, and it may be from the words of Allah, the Most High, to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and the intended meaning is to inform the disbelievers. The connection of the wording to this meaning is from the words of the jinn: "Respond to the caller of Allah," so when this was narrated, it was said: "And whoever does not respond to the caller of Allah" is in such a condition. And the one who is unable is the one who goes in the earth who shows the inability of his seeker and cannot achieve it. It has been narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, that "and he will have no allies besides Him" has an additional 'm'.

And His saying, exalted is He: "Do they not see" refers to the people of Quraysh. This is a verse of a parable and an argument. They said: "The bodies cannot be resurrected or returned," while they still acknowledge that Allah, exalted is He, created the heavens and the earth. Thus, the proof has been established against them based on their own words. The vision in His saying, exalted is He: "Do they not see" is the vision of the heart. The majority of people read: "And he did not understand" with a silent 'ayn and an open 'ya' at the end. Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan read: "understand" with a broken 'ayn and a silent 'ya', and that is based on omission. The 'ba' in His saying, exalted is He: "By the All-Powerful" is an additional confirming particle. Since there is a negation that precedes the statement, the use of 'ba' for emphasis is appropriate, even if what is negated is not what it is attached to, just as in your saying: "Zayd is not standing." The substitute for "Do they not see" is "Is not He who created?" Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him and the majority read: "By the All-Powerful." Al-Jahdari, Al-A'raj, 'Isa, and Amr ibn Ubaid read differently: "He is capable" with a 'ya' indicating a future action. Abu Hatim preferred this and criticized the reading of the majority due to the disturbance of the 'ba' in his view. In the Mushaf of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, it is written: "And why does he not understand that He is capable of creating them" without a 'ba'. And "Indeed" is a response after the preceding negation, so it affirms what was negated. The meaning is: Indeed, they saw that, meaning: if it had benefited them and settled in their hearts. Then the statement resumes with the confirmed news in His saying, exalted is He: "Indeed, He is capable of all things."