To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth. This means He is the owner of their affairs and their guardian. This is a form of metaphor, because the guardian of the treasures and the one who manages their affairs is the one who possesses their keys. From this comes the saying: 'So-and-so was given the keys of kingship,' which are the keys, and there is no singular form for it in its wording. It is said: maqālid. It is also said: iqālīd, and the word's origin is Persian. If you say, what does the clear Arabic book have to do with Persian? I say: Arabization has made it Arabic, just as the neglected usage has been brought out from being neglected. If you ask, how is his saying connected to 'and those who disbelieve'? I say: it is connected to His saying 'and Allah will save those who fear Him,' meaning Allah saves the righteous by their success, and those who disbelieve are the losers.

It is objected between them that He is the Creator of all things, and He is dominant over them, so nothing of the actions of those obliged to act in them and what they deserve in terms of recompense is hidden from Him. He has made it connected to what follows, that everything in the heavens and the earth, Allah is its Creator and the opener of its door. And those who disbelieve and deny that the matter is so, they are the losers. It is said that Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, asked the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, about the interpretation of His saying 'To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth.' He said: 'O Uthman, no one has asked me about it before you. Its interpretation is: There is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest, and glory be to Allah and praise be to Him, and I seek forgiveness from Allah, and there is no power and no strength except with Allah. He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden. In His hand is good; He gives life and causes death, and He is capable of all things.' [Reported by Abu Ya'la, Ibn Abi Hatim, Al-'Aqili, Al-Bayhaqi in Al-Asma, and Al-Tabarani in Al-Dua, all from the narration of Aghlab bin Tamim who narrated from Mukhlid Abu Al-Hudhail from Abdul Rahim. And Abdul Rahman bin Adi from Abdullah bin Umar with it, and Ibn Al-Jawzi mentioned it in the fabricated reports from this chain. And there is another version with Ibn Mardawayh from the route of Kalb bin Wa'il from Umar, and Ibn Mardawayh narrated it from Al-Tabarani with another chain to Ibn Abbas, 'that Uthman - and he mentioned it,' and in it is Salam bin Wahb Al-Jundi from his father, and I do not know them.] The interpretation of this is that Allah has these words with which He is unified and glorified, and they are the keys to the good of the heavens and the earth: whoever speaks them from the righteous will attain it, and those who disbelieve in the signs of Allah and His words of unification and glorification, they are the losers.