The phrase تَوَفَّاهُمُ can be understood as past tense, similar to the reading of one who recited: توفتهم. It can also be understood as present tense, meaning تتوفاهم, like the reading of one who recited: توفاهم, in the present tense, meaning that Allah gives the angels the ability to take their souls, allowing them to fulfill it. This refers to those who wronged themselves, as they said: The angels said to the ones being taken: فِيمَ كُنْتُمْ, in what state were you regarding your religion? They were a group from the people of Mecca who embraced Islam but did not migrate when migration was obligatory. If you ask: How is it correct for them to say كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ in response to their question (فِيمَ كُنْتُمْ)? The proper response would have been: We were in such and such a situation, or we were not in anything. I say: The meaning of (فِيمَ كُنْتُمْ) is for reproach, as they were not in any state regarding their religion, since they were able to migrate but did not. They said: We were oppressed, as an excuse for what they were reproached with, claiming that they could not migrate until they were in a situation. The angels rebuked them by saying: أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ واسِعَةً فَتُهاجِرُوا فِيها, meaning that you were capable of leaving Mecca for some lands where you would not be prevented from expressing your religion and migrating to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, as the emigrants did to the land of Abyssinia. This is evidence that if a person is in a land where he cannot establish his religion as required, due to various reasons and obstacles, or if he knows that he would be more steadfast in fulfilling the rights of Allah and more persistent in worship in another land, then migration becomes obligatory upon him. The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'Whoever flees with his religion from one land to another, even if it is just a span of land, he has earned Paradise, and he will be a companion of his father Ibrahim and his Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon them.' [Reported by Al-Thalabi in the Tafsir of Al-Ankabut from the narration of Abbad bin Mansur Al-Naji from Al-Hasan, as a disconnected narration.] O Allah, if You know that my migration to You was only to flee with my religion, then make it a means for a good ending and attaining what is hoped for from Your grace and what is sought from Your mercy. And connect my proximity to You with my devotion at Your House, beside You in the abode of Your honor, O All-Encompassing Forgiveness. Then He excluded from the people of warning those who are oppressed and unable to find a way out due to their poverty and inability, and who have no knowledge of the paths. It is reported that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, sent this verse to the Muslims of Mecca. Jundab bin Dumrah or Dumrah bin Jundab said to his sons: Carry me, for I am not among the oppressed, and I know the way, and by Allah, I will not spend the night in Mecca. So they carried him on a bed towards Medina, and he was an elderly man, and he died at Al-Tan'eem. [Al-Thalabi mentioned this without a chain. Al-Wahidi reported it in the reasons from the path of Ash'ath bin Suwar from Ikrimah from Ibn Abbas: The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, sent this verse (إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلائِكَةُ ظالِمِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ), and when the Muslims read it, Jundab bin Dumrah Al-Laythi, who was an elderly man, said: Carry me, and he mentioned it. Abu Ya'la and Al-Tabarani reported it from this route in a summarized form.] If you ask: How are children included in the exception from the people of warning? [Mahamud said: 'The exception from the warned ones in His saying: (فَأُولئِكَ مَأْواهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَساءَتْ مَصِيراً) ... etc.' Ahmad said: His saying 'Indeed, the young ones among the children are charged similarly to the adults' is refuted by his saying, blessings and peace be upon him: 'The pen is lifted from three: from the child until he reaches puberty.' Thus, reaching puberty itself is the criterion for obligation. This is the view of the majority, and we have not received any disagreement on it. Al-Zamakhshari said: He meant those who are newly acquainted with childhood, even if they have reached adulthood, naming them by their previous name due to their recent acquaintance with it, as He said: (وَآتُوا الْيَتامى أَمْوالَهُمْ), and He called them orphans even if they have reached adulthood, as their wealth is not given until they reach maturity, because they are newly acquainted with orphanhood.

The purpose is to hasten the payment of the funds to them when they reach maturity, even if their time of orphanhood is near, to the extent that they are referred to as orphans. They should not delay, and if al-Zamakhshari had said the same about the boys, it would have been a sound statement, and Allah knows best. It is as if they were deserving of the threat along with men and women if they could devise a plan and find a way? I say: men and women may be capable and guided, or they may not be so. As for the boys, they can only be incapable of that, so the threat does not apply to them because the reason for men and women being excluded from the category of those threatened is their incapacity. If incapacity is firmly established in boys and they cannot escape it, they are necessarily excluded from that group. This is if the boys refer to children, and it may be that those among them who have reached adolescence and understand what men and women understand are included with them in obligation. If they refer to mature slaves and maidservants, there is no question. If you say: what is the position of the phrase 'they cannot'? I say: it is an attribute of the weak or of the men, women, and boys. It was permissible for this to be the case even though the phrases are indefinite, because the described, even if it has the definite article, does not refer to a specific thing, like his saying: 'And indeed, I pass by the vile one who insults me.' If you say: why was it said (Allah may pardon them) with the word of hope? I say: to indicate that the abandonment of migration is a matter that is constricted, with no expansion in it, to the extent that the one who is clearly in distress has the right to say, 'Allah may pardon me,' so how about others?