Its apparent meaning is the command regarding one of two matters: secrecy and declaration. Its meaning is: let your secrecy and declaration be equal before you, in the knowledge of Allah regarding both of them. Then He explained this by saying, 'Indeed, He is Knowing of what is in the breasts,' meaning of their inner thoughts before they are expressed by the tongues. So how could He not know what has been spoken? Then He denied that the One who created things does not encompass knowledge of the concealed and the declared. [Mahamud said: 'He denied that He does not encompass knowledge of the secret or the declaration of the One who created that...'] Ahmad said: 'This verse is a refutation of the Mu'tazila and a confirmation of the path that the Ahl al-Sunnah take in refuting them. For the Ahl al-Sunnah argue that the servant does not create his actions because he does not know them, which is an argument by negating the necessary condition of knowledge for the negation of the consequence of creation. And this connection is indicated by the verse, for Allah the Exalted guided to the argument for the establishment of His knowledge through the establishment of creation. This is an argument by the existence of the consequence for the existence of the necessary condition. It is one light from which the establishment of the knowledge of the Creator, glorified and exalted is He, is derived, and the nullification of the servant's creation of his actions. The grammatical analysis of the verse aligns with this meaning, for the appropriate interpretation is that 'who' is the doer intended to refer to the Creator, and the object of knowledge is omitted, its estimation being: that refers to the secret and the declaration, and the object of creation is omitted, its pronoun returning to that. The estimation in all is: does He not know the secret and the declaration of the One who created them? And if we were to take a different grammatical approach, it would lead us to the confines of forced interpretation and distortion. It is possible that it could be interpreted as an object falling upon the doer of the secret and the declaration, estimating: does Allah not know the secretive and the declarative? This does not match the detailed explanation, for it did not occur with the doers, but rather with their actions of secrecy and declaration. And thus the argument was established. Other interpretations are even further from this. The first is preferable in wording and meaning. And Allah is the Guide.