Say, "Indeed, I have been commanded to be sincere in religion, and I have been commanded to do so in order to be the first of the Muslims," meaning their leader and foremost in this world and the Hereafter. The meaning is that sincerity has precedence in religion; whoever is sincere is foremost. If you say: How is it that I have been commanded is connected to I have been commanded, and they are the same? [Madhud said: "If you say: How is it that I have been commanded is connected to I have been commanded, and he answered that it is not repetition..." Ahmad said: And he has indeed excelled in strengthening this meaning in this verse by saying, 'So worship whatever you wish besides Him,' for its opposition by not being restricted necessitates its being for restriction, and Allah knows best. How beautiful is what is mentioned regarding the various aspects of exaggeration in describing Allah, the Exalted, the horror of their loss, as he began the sentence with a word of alertness, and placed a separation between the subject and the predicate, and defined loss and described it as clear. He indicated in naming the devil as a Taghut three aspects of exaggeration: the first is naming it with the source as if it is the essence of tyranny; the second is its construction on the form of 'fa'lu,' which is a form of exaggeration like 'rahmout,' meaning vast mercy, and 'malakout' and its like. The third is the precedence of the letter 'lam' over the letter 'ain' to indicate the exclusivity of the devil with this name."? I say: They are not the same due to the difference in their aspects. The command for sincerity and the obligation of it is one thing, and the command for it to secure the one who fulfills it with precedence in religion is another. When the aspects and descriptions of a thing differ, it is regarded as two different things. You may consider the 'lam' as an addition like in 'I intended that I do,' and it is only added with 'an' specifically without the explicit name, as if it has been added in place of leaving the original for what replaces it, just as the 'sin' in 'istata'a' has replaced the original which is 'atw'a.' The evidence for this aspect is its coming without 'lam' in the saying, 'And I have been commanded to be the first of the Muslims,' and 'I have been commanded to be among the believers,' and 'I have been commanded to be the first of those who submitted,' and in its meaning are aspects: to be the first of those who submitted in my time and among my people, for he was the first to oppose the religion of his forefathers and to remove and shatter the idols. And to be the first of those whom I called to Islam in submission. And to be the first who called himself to what he called others, so that I may be an example for myself in my words and actions altogether, and my description should not be that of kings who command what they do not do. And to do what I deserve of precedence in the deeds of the foremost, indicating the reason by the effect, meaning: that Allah commanded me to purify for Him the religion from polytheism and hypocrisy and every mixture, by the evidence of reason and revelation.

If I disobey my Lord by opposing the two proofs, I have earned His punishment. So I will not disobey Him nor will I follow your command, at the time when they called him to the religion of his forefathers. If you say: What is the meaning of the repetition in the saying, 'Say, Indeed, I have been commanded to worship Allah, making religion sincere for Him' and in the saying, 'Say, Allah I worship, making my religion sincere for Him'? I say: It is not repetition, because the first is an announcement that he is commanded by Allah to establish worship and sincerity. The second is an announcement that he dedicates worship to Allah alone, without anyone else, sincerely for Him. Due to this indication, he placed the object of worship before the act of worship and delayed it in the first instance. Thus, the speech first pertains to the act itself and its establishment, and secondly to the one who performs the act for His sake. Therefore, he arranged his saying, 'So worship whatever you wish besides Him.' The intent of this command, which is presented in the form of choice, is an emphasis on abandonment and letting go, as I have clarified in the saying twice. Say, indeed, those who are complete in loss, gathering its aspects and causes, are those who have lost themselves by falling into a destruction from which there is no destruction after it. And they have lost their families, for if they are among the people of the Fire, they have lost them just as they have lost themselves. And if they are among the people of Paradise, they have gone away from them in a way that there is no return to them. It is said: And they lost them because they did not enter the entrance of the believers who have families in Paradise. This means: And they lost their families who would have been for them had they believed. And indeed, their loss has been described with the utmost horror in the saying, 'Indeed, that is the manifest loss,' where the sentence is initiated and prefaced with a particle of attention, and the separation is placed between the subject and the predicate, and loss is defined and described as manifest.