If you say: What is the meaning of His saying, 'And those who have earned evil deeds, their recompense is an evil deed like it,' and how does it fit together? I say: It is not devoid of two possibilities. Either 'And those who have earned' is connected to the saying 'those who have done good,' as if it were said: 'And those who have earned evil deeds, their recompense is an evil deed like it,' or it is to be understood as: 'And the recompense of those who have earned evil deeds is an evil deed like it,' meaning: Their recompense is that one evil deed is compensated with an evil deed like it, without any increase upon it. This is more appropriate than the first, because the first involves conjunction with two agents, although Al-Akhfash permits it. In this, there is evidence that the intended meaning of the increase is the favor, because it indicates by the absence of increase upon the evil deed His justice, and it indicates there by affirming the increase upon the reward His favor.

And it has been recited: 'They will be overwhelmed by humiliation,' with the pronoun 'they' from Allah, from 'Asim,' meaning that no one will protect them from the wrath of Allah and His punishment. It is permissible that they have no protector from Allah, and from Him, someone who protects them, as it is for the believers. 'Darkness' is a state from Allah. And whoever recited 'pieces' with a pause from the saying 'with pieces of the night,' made it an attribute of it. The reading of Ubayy ibn Ka'b supports this: 'As if pieces of darkness cover their faces.' If you say: If you made 'dark' a state of the night, what is the agent in it? I say: It is not devoid of two possibilities. Either it is understood as 'covered' from before, and 'from the night' is an attribute of the saying 'pieces,' so its reference to the described is like its reference to the attribute, or it could be that the meaning of the action is in 'from the night.'