That is news of a subject that is omitted, meaning: the matter and affair is that, just as a writer presents a sentence from his book in some meanings, then when he wants to delve into another meaning he says: this has been such and such. And the sanctity is that which it is not permissible to violate. And all that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, has commanded with this description from the rites of Hajj and others, it is possible that it is general in all His obligations, and it is possible that it is specific to what relates to Hajj. And from Zayd ibn Aslam: the sanctities are five: the Sacred Kaaba, the Sacred Mosque, the Sacred City, the Sacred Month, and the one who is in a state of ihram until it is permissible for him. So, the sanctification is better for him, meaning that the reverence is better for him. And the meaning of reverence is the knowledge that it is obligatory to observe, protect, and uphold its observance. The recited does not exclude from the livestock, but the meaning is except what is recited to you of the verse of its prohibition, and that is His saying in Surah Al-Ma'idah: 'Prohibited to you are dead animals and blood.' And the meaning is that Allah has made all livestock lawful for you except what He has excluded in His Book, so maintain His limits, and beware not to prohibit what Allah has made lawful, like the prohibition of the idol worshippers of the al-bahira and al-sa'iba and others, and not to make lawful what Allah has prohibited, like their making lawful the consumption of the dead and the injured and others. When He urged the reverence of His sanctities and praised those who revere them, He followed it with the command to avoid idols and false speech, because the oneness of Allah and the negation of partners from Him and truthful speech are the greatest sanctities and the foremost in importance. He combined polytheism and false speech in one verse, as polytheism is a form of falsehood because the polytheist claims that the idol deserves worship. So, it is as if He said: Avoid the worship of idols, which is the essence of falsehood, and avoid all false speech; do not approach anything of it due to its extreme ugliness and repulsiveness. And what do you think of something akin to the worship of idols? And He called the idols 'filth' as well as wine, gambling, and divining arrows, in a manner of comparison. Meaning: just as you are repulsed by your nature from filth and avoid it, you should be repulsed from these things in the same way. And He pointed to this meaning by saying: 'Filth is from the work of Satan, so avoid it.' He made the reason for avoiding it that it is filth, and filth is avoided from the idols, clarifying the filth and distinguishing it, like saying: I have twenty dirhams, because filth is ambiguous and encompasses more than one thing, as if it were said: So avoid the filth which is the idols. And falsehood is from falsehood and deviation, just as slander is from 'afaka' when it is diverted. And it was said that 'the saying of falsehood' is their saying: 'This is lawful and this is unlawful,' and similar things from their fabrications. And it was said: 'Testimony of falsehood.' It is reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he prayed the Fajr prayer, and when he finished, he stood facing the people and said: 'The testimony of falsehood is equivalent to associating partners with Allah, the testimony of falsehood is equivalent to associating partners with Allah, the testimony of falsehood is equivalent to associating partners with Allah.' And he recited this verse.

And it is said: lying and slander. And it is said: the saying of the people of ignorance in their response: 'Here I am, no partner for You except a partner who belongs to You, whom You own and what he owns.' It is permissible in this comparison that it may be compound or separate. If it is a compound comparison, it is as if he said: whoever associates partners with Allah has destroyed himself in a destruction that has no end after it, by depicting his state as the state of one who falls from the sky and is snatched by the birds, becoming pieces in their gizzards, or the wind blows him until it throws him into some distant abyss. And if it is separate, he has compared faith in its elevation to the sky, and the one who abandons faith and associates partners with Allah to one who has fallen from the sky, and the desires that scatter his thoughts to the snatching birds, and the devil that tosses him in the valley of misguidance to the wind that blows him down into some destructive depths. It has been said: 'And it is permissible in this comparison that it may be compound or separate. If it is compound, it is as if he said: whoever associates partners with Allah has destroyed himself in a destruction that has no end after it, by depicting his state as the state of one who falls from the sky and is snatched by the birds, becoming pieces in their gizzards, or the wind blows him until it throws him into some distant abyss. And if it is separate, he has compared faith in its elevation to the sky, and the one who abandons faith and associates partners with Allah to one who has fallen from the sky, and he has compared the desires that scatter his thoughts to the snatching birds, and the devil that tosses him in the valley of misguidance to the wind that blows him down into some destructive depths.' Ahmad said: 'As for the assumption that it is separate, the interpretation of the comparison of the polytheist to one who falls from the sky requires pointing out one of two matters: either that the association meant is his apostasy, for then he is like one who ascended to the sky with his faith and then descended with his apostasy. Or that the association is original, in which case the ability of the polytheist to have faith and ascend with it, then his choosing to abandon it, is like one who ascended to the sky and then descended, as Allah, the Exalted, said: 'And those who disbelieve, their allies are the tyrants; they bring them out of the light into darkness.' So they are counted as being brought out of the light which they never entered, but they were capable of it. This meaning has been explained in simpler terms than this. In explaining it, the comparison of the scattered thoughts of the disbeliever to the snatching birds is made, and in comparing the tossing of the devil with desires to the wind in a deep place, there is consideration, because the two matters were mentioned in the context of dividing the state of the disbeliever into two sections. If the first is made an example for the differing desires and thoughts, and the second is made an example for the devil's incitement, then they have been made one thing, because the scattering of thoughts and differing desires, added to the devil's incitement, does not achieve the intended division. What appears in explaining the two comparisons is different from that. We say: when the state of the disbeliever is divided into two sections with no more than these, the first of them: the wavering and the one who persists in doubt and does not decide on one misguidance, this section of polytheists is likened to one snatched by birds and scattered, so no bird takes a piece of him except that another snatches it from him. This is the state of the wavering; no imagination appears to him except that he follows it and descends from what he was upon. The second: a polytheist who is determined on a false belief, if he were to be struck with the swords, he would not falter nor would he return; there is no way to doubt him nor hope to change him from what he is upon. He is joyful and delighted in his misguidance. This one is likened in his persistence on his disbelief to one who has settled down after being blown by the wind into a low valley, so he has settled in it. And the analogy of his settling in the deep valley, which is the farthest from the sky, is similar to describing his misguidance as distant in His saying: 'Those are in a far misguidance; they have gone astray in a far misguidance,' meaning they have persisted in their misguidance after their return to the truth. This is the clarification of the two sections, and Allah knows best.

And it was recited: 'Fatakhtafahu.' With a kasra on the khā and ṭā. And with a kasra on the tā along with them, which is the reading of al-Ḥasan. Its origin is: 'Takhtafahu.' And it was recited: 'Al-riyāḥ.'