Did you see? Inform me if I am on clear evidence from my Lord, and a witness from Him testifying to the truth of my claim. And He has given me mercy from Him by granting the evidence, and the evidence in itself is mercy. It is permissible that by evidence, he means: the miracle, and by mercy: prophethood. If you say: Then his saying 'so it became blind' is apparent in the first interpretation, what is its meaning in the second? It is correct to say 'so it became blind'? I say: The meaning is that it is to be understood as 'it became blind' after the evidence, and that its omission is for the sake of brevity by mentioning it once. The meaning of 'became blind' is that it became hidden. And it has been recited: 'so it became blind' meaning 'I hid it.' In the reading of Abu: 'so it became blind to you.' If you say: What is its reality? I say: Its reality is that the proof, as it was made insightful and enlightening, was made blind, because the blind does not find guidance nor guide others. So the meaning of 'so the evidence became blind to you' is that it did not guide you, just as if the guide became blind in the wilderness, they would remain without a guide. If you say: What is the meaning of the reading of Abu? I say: The meaning is that they insisted on turning away from it, so Allah left them. And their insistence made that abandonment a blindness from Him, and the evidence for this is His saying: 'Shall We impose it upon you while you dislike it?' meaning that He does not compel you to accept it and does not force you to be guided by it, while you dislike it and do not choose it, and there is no compulsion in religion? And the two pronouns of the object are both connected. It is permissible that the second is separated, as in your saying: 'Shall We impose it upon you?' And similar to this is: 'So Allah will suffice you against them.' And it is permissible: 'So He will suffice you against them.' It has been reported from Abu Amr that he pronounced the 'm' in 'suffice' as silent. The reason is that the movement was only a slight whisper, so the narrator thought it was silence. And the explicit silence is a mistake according to Al-Khalil and Sibawayh and the masters of Basra, because the grammatical movement cannot be omitted except in the necessity of poetry. The pronoun in His saying: 'I do not ask you for it' refers back to His saying to them: 'Indeed, I am for you a clear warner that you do not worship except Allah.' And it has been read: 'And I am not a driver of those who have believed,' with the tanween as per the original. If you say: What is the meaning of His saying: 'Indeed, they will meet their Lord'? I say: Its meaning is that they will meet Allah, and He will punish whoever drove them away. Or they will meet Him and He will reward them for what is in their hearts of true, steadfast faith, as it has appeared to me from them, and I do not know anything else from them. Or contrary to that, from what you accuse them of, meaning that you blame them and criticize them for building their faith on initial opinion without reflection and thought. And it is not upon me to uncover their hearts and to know the secret of that from them until I drive them away if the matter is as you claim. And similar to this is: 'And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord.' Or they are believers in meeting their Lord, certain of it, knowing that they will meet Him without a doubt. You are ignorant, you belittle the believers and call them the lowly, from His saying: 'Indeed, let not anyone be ignorant of us.' This is from the Mu'allaqat of Amr ibn Kulthum, and 'Indeed' is an introductory particle that conveys emphasis, and 'not' is a negation. The 'n' is for the emphasis of the prohibition, meaning: let not anyone act foolishly towards us and initiate evil against us, and we will act foolishly: it is in the accusative because it is implied after the causal conjunction due to the prohibition. And the punishment for ignorance is called ignorance in analogy, meaning: we will punish him beyond his action against us, or beyond the ignorance of every ignorant and an increase upon it.

Or do you not know of the meeting with your Lord? Or do you not know that they are better than you? Who will protect me from Allah if I expel them? They were asking him to expel them so that they might believe in him, being too proud to be equal with them. I know the unseen, which is connected to my saying: 'I have the treasures of Allah.' I do not say I have the treasures of Allah, nor do I say: 'I know the unseen.' Its meaning is: I do not say to you: 'I have the treasures of Allah' to claim superiority over you in wealth, so that you deny my favor by saying: 'We do not see any favor for you over us.' Nor do I claim knowledge of the unseen, so that you would attribute lies and slander to me, or so that I would know what is in the hearts of my followers and the secrets of their hearts. And I do not say: 'I am an angel,' so that you would say to me: 'You are only a human like us.' Nor do I judge those whom you disdain among the believers for their poverty, that Allah will not grant them goodness in this world and the Hereafter due to their insignificance to Him, as you say, to assist you and yield to your desires. If I were to say anything of that, then I would certainly be among the wrongdoers. And disdain is an act of making light of someone, as in: 'He made light of him.' To make light of him means to belittle him. It is said: 'His eye made light of him,' and 'His eye fell upon him.' You argued with us and increased our argument, meaning: You intended to argue with us and began it, and you increased it, like saying: 'So-and-so argued and increased and improved.' 'So bring us what you promise us of the hastened punishment.'