(Makkan, [except for verses 28 and 29 which are Medinan] and its verses are 52 [revealed after Surah Nuh]) 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

A book is a book, referring to the surah. It was read: to bring people out. The darkness and the light:

Are two metaphors for misguidance and guidance by the permission of their Lord, by His facilitation and ease. It is borrowed from the permission which is the facilitation of the veil, and that which He grants them of kindness and success to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy, instead of saying to the light by repeating the action, like His saying: 'for those who were oppressed among them.' It may also be that it is in the form of a new statement, as if it were said: to which light? It was said: to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy. And the saying 'Allah' is an explanatory conjunction for the Almighty, the Praiseworthy, because it is like the names of proper nouns due to its predominance and its specificity to the deity who deserves worship, just as the star predominates in the Pleiades. It was read in the nominative as: He is Allah.

Woe: the opposite of wailing, and it is a name of meaning, like destruction, except that no verb is derived from it. It is only said: woe to him, so it is in the accusative like the sources, then it is raised to convey the meaning of permanence, so it is said: woe to him, like His saying: peace be upon you. And when He mentioned those who come out from the darkness of disbelief to the light of faith, He warned the disbelievers with woe.

If you say: what is the connection of His saying 'from a severe punishment' with woe? I say: because the meaning is that they wail from a severe punishment, and they complain from it, and they say: 'O woe to me,' like His saying: 'They called out there for destruction.' Those who prefer: the subject and its predicate is: those are in far misguidance, and it may be that it is genitive as an attribute for the disbelievers, or accusative as a form of blame, or nominative as: meaning those who prefer or they are those who prefer.

Preference is the choice and selection, and it is a form derived from love, because the one who prefers something over another is as if he is asking himself to be more beloved to him and better in his view than the other. And Al-Hasan read: 'and they hinder,' with the 'yaa' being pronounced and the 'sad' being broken. It is said: he hindered him from such and such, and I hindered him.

He said: 'A people who hindered people with swords from them.' [[A people who hindered people with swords from them... the hindrance of the winds in the noses of the thirsty camels.]] This was narrated from Al-Farra. It is said: he hindered him from such and such, and the dialect of Kalb is: I hindered him from it if I prevented him. Thus, the hindrance is placed in place of the hindrances. And the 'siyafi' - with a 'faa' - refers to the winds, because they raise the dust. And it was said: it is with a 'qaf' the plural of 'saq' or 'saaqiya,' which is above the stream. And the 'hawaim' are the thirsty camels, because they circle around the water, the plural of 'ha'im.' It is also used for birds when they are very thirsty, they circle around the water, and when they reach it, their feathers fall and they drown in it. Its plural is also 'hawaim.' And it may be intended here, or the mountains, because of their height they overlook from afar as if they are hovering, or because the birds hover above them, so the attribution of the action to them is metaphorical because it is their place. He says: a people who prevented people from themselves with swords to prevent the winds and strike them in the noses of the camels, or on the tops of the mountains, or like preventing the waterers from watering their camels, or like preventing the rivers from the thirsty camels or thirsty birds from drinking, because the birds fear drowning in it.

It is narrated: from the noses of the thirsty camels. And in it is a comparison of the enemies to the thirsty and the sword bearers, or the swords to the winds implicitly.

And the hamzah in it is included in the word 'sad' as a means to transfer it from non-transitive to transitive. As for 'sadda', it is established on transitivity like 'man'a', and it is not eloquent like 'awqafa', because the eloquent have sufficed with 'sadda' and 'waqafa' from the effort of making it transitive with the hamzah. And they seek for it a deviation and they seek for the path of Allah a straying and a deviation, and to guide the people to it as a path that is deviating from the truth, not straight. The original is: 'wa yabghuna laha', so the preposition was omitted and the verb was connected. 'In dalalin ba'idin' means they have strayed from the path of truth, and they have stopped short of it by stages. If you say: What is the meaning of describing the straying as far? I say: It is from the figurative attribution, and the distance in reality is for the strayer, because he is the one who distances himself from the path. Thus, his action is described by it, as you say: 'Jadda jaddahu'. And it is permissible that it is meant: in a straying of distance. Or there is distance in it, because the strayer may stray from the path in a place that is near or far.