It was recited: 'And he enjoined,' and it is in the manuscripts of the people of Hijaz and Sham. The pronoun in it refers to his saying: 'I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds' based on the interpretation of the word and the sentence. Similarly, the return of the pronoun in his saying: 'And He made it a lasting word' refers back to his saying: 'Indeed, I am free of what you worship except for He who created me.' And his saying: 'a lasting word' is evidence that the feminine form is based on the interpretation of the word. And Ya'qub is mentioned in conjunction with Ibrahim, included in his ruling. The meaning is: And Ya'qub enjoined it upon his sons as well.

And it was recited: 'And Ya'qub,' in the accusative, in conjunction with his sons. Its meaning is: And Ibrahim enjoined it upon his sons, and Ya'qub added, 'O my sons,' implying the saying according to the Basri scholars. And according to the Kufi scholars, it relates to 'enjoined,' because it is in the meaning of saying.

Similar is the saying of someone:

'Two men from Dhabbah informed us... Indeed, we saw a man naked.' [[Two men with a pause for ease and weight, as the arm is paused. Dhabbah: the name of a tribe. It was narrated alternatively 'from Makkah,' and the report here means saying, hence 'Indeed' is broken after it, meaning they said to us that saying, which is: 'Indeed, we saw.' The Kufi opinion is that the reported sentence is in the accusative due to the mentioned verb. The Basri opinion is a stated saying. Some said: It appears to be explanatory, thus it has no place. It was narrated with a fatha by omitting the preposition, meaning 'that we saw.']]

With the hamza broken: it is based on the estimation of the saying according to us, and according to them, it relates to the act of informing. And in the reading of Ubayy and Ibn Mas'ud: 'O my sons, He has chosen for you the religion,' He has given you the religion which is the best of religions, which is the religion of Islam.

And He guided you to adhere to it, so do not die except while you are steadfast in Islam. The prohibition is, in reality, against being in a state contrary to that of Islam when they die, like your saying: 'Do not pray except while you are humble.' You do not prohibit him from praying, but from neglecting humility during his prayer. If you say: What is the point of introducing the prohibition particle on prayer when it is not prohibited? I say: The point is to show that the prayer without humility is not a prayer at all, as if he said: I prohibit you from it if you do not perform it in this state. Do you not see his saying, blessings and peace be upon him: 'There is no prayer for the neighbor of the mosque except in the mosque'? [[Narrated by Al-Daraqutni and Al-Hakim from the narration of Abu Salamah from Abu Hurairah, and in it is Sulayman ibn Dawud Al-Yamani, who is weak. Al-Daraqutni, Ibn Adi, and Al-Aqili narrated from the hadith of Jabir, and in it is Muhammad ibn Maskin, who is weak. Ibn Hibban narrated it in the weak narrations in the biography of Umar ibn Rashid from Ibn Abi Dhiyab from Al-Zuhri from Urwah from Aisha, and he said that Umar ibn Rashid fabricated the hadith. It has been authentically reported as a stopping narration from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. Narrated by Ibn Abi Shaybah.]] For it is like explicitly saying to the neighbor of the mosque: 'Do not pray except in the mosque.' Likewise, the meaning in the verse shows that their death not in a state of steadfastness in Islam is a death with no good in it, and it is not the death of the happy ones, and it is a right that this death should not occur among them. And you also say in the command: 'Die while you are a martyr.' And your intention is not to command death, but to be in the state of martyrs when you die. And you only commanded him to die as a recognition of his death and to show its virtue over others, and that it is truly worthy of being encouraged.