Medinan, and it consists of twenty-nine verses [revealed after Al-Zalzalah]. 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.'

It has come in some of the openings that 'سبح' is in the past tense, and in others in the present tense. Each of them means that it is the nature of the one to whom glorification is attributed to glorify Him, and that is his habit and custom. This action has been transitive with 'ل' at times and by itself at others, as in His saying: 'وَتُسَبِّحُوهُ.' Its origin is that it is transitive by itself, because the meaning of 'سبحته' is: I distanced him from evil, derived from 'سبح' when it went away and distanced. Thus, the 'ل' cannot be anything other than like the 'ل' in: 'نصحته' and 'نصحت له.' Or it could mean that 'سبح لله' is to initiate glorification for the sake of Allah and for His face alone, what is in the heavens and the earth that can glorify and is valid.

If you say: What is the place of 'يُحْيِي'?

I say: It may not have a place, and it could be a complete sentence by itself, like His saying: 'لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّماواتِ.' It could be raised as: 'He gives life and causes death,' or it could be in the accusative as a state of the genitive in 'لَهُ,' and the preposition is acting upon it. Its meaning is:

He gives life to the sperm, the eggs, and the dead on the Day of Resurrection, and He causes the living to die. 'He is the First,' the ancient One who was before everything, 'and the Last,' who remains after the destruction of everything, 'and the Manifest' by the evidences that indicate Him, 'and the Hidden' because He is not perceived by the senses. If you say: What is the meaning of the 'و'?

[Muhammad said:] 'If you say: What is the meaning of the 'و'?' He answered that the one in between the First and the Last is for the combination of the meaning of precedence and permanence, etc. He said: And the meaning of 'the Manifest' is by the evidences, and 'the Hidden' is from the senses. It was said: And in it is a proof against those who claimed that He, the Exalted, is seen in the Hereafter by the senses.' Ahmad said: 'There is no proof in this, for we can say that the intended meaning is the lack of perception by the senses in this world, not in the Hereafter. And we say it, or in the Hereafter. The intended meaning is the disbelievers and those who deny the vision, like the Qadariyyah. Do you not see His saying: 'كَلَّا إِنَّهُمْ عَنْ رَبِّهِمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ لَمَحْجُوبُونَ'? It has been said that this is a restriction and specification against the apparent meaning. We say that the matter is definitive, and the possibility is enough. Also, its counterpart must be specified, for He, the Exalted, did not reveal all of His creation through the evidences that lead to His knowledge, but concealed them from many of them and deprived them of the success of faith in Him, the Mighty and Majestic. Thus, the apparent meaning is in specification like the second, a connection between it and the first.'

I said: The first 'و' means indication.

[He said:] 'The first indicates the gathering of the two primary attributes, and the third indicates the gathering of the two closest. The second indicates the gathering of the two groups.' (A)

It indicates that He is the gatherer between the primary and final attributes, and the third indicates that He is the gatherer between manifestation and concealment. As for the middle one, it indicates that He is the gatherer between the totality of the two primary attributes and the totality of the two final attributes. He is the one whose existence continues in all past and future times, and He is in all of them manifest and hidden: gathering the manifestation by evidences and concealment, thus He is not perceived by the senses. In this is a proof against those who permitted His perception.

[He said:] 'A proof against those who permitted His perception' means the people of the Sunnah, for they have permitted His vision absolutely, and they said: 'The sights do not perceive Him,' meaning they do not encompass Him, while the Mu'tazilah denied His vision, and the details are in Tawhid.' (A)

It was said: 'The Manifest is the Most High over everything, the dominant over it, from 'ظهر عليه' when He overcomes and dominates it. And the Hidden is what is concealed in everything, meaning He knows its hidden aspects, and it is not as such when deviating from the apparent meaning.