Makki, and it is thirty verses [revealed after At-Tur] and it is called: Al-Waqi'a, and Al-Munjiya, because it protects and saves its reader from the punishment of the grave. 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.'

Blessed and exalted is He, who is above the attributes of created beings, the One in whose hand is the dominion over every existing thing, and He is capable of everything that has not yet existed, which falls under His power. The mention of the hand is a metaphor for encompassing dominion and control over it. Life: is what, by its existence, allows for sensation. It is said: what necessitates a thing being alive, which is that it is capable of knowledge and power. Death is the absence of that.

[Muhammad said: "What necessitates a thing being alive or what allows for sensation, and death is the absence of that..." Ahmad said: He erred in interpreting death, as it is known that he interprets and follows the interpretations of the Qadarites, including the cutting off of Allah's mention: that death is absence, which is a clear mistake. The belief of Ahl as-Sunnah is that it is an existential matter that opposes life. How can absence be of such a nature? If absence were a created occurrence and the absence of occurrences was established eternally, it would necessitate the cutting off of occurrences eternally, which is more absurd than claiming the eternity of the world. So look at where this desire leads its possessor. And how it brings down its owner and destroys him; we seek refuge in Allah from error and folly.]

The meaning of creating death and life: is the bringing into existence of that which allows for existence and its negation. The meaning: He created your death and your life, O those who are obligated, to test you. And the knowledge of what occurs among them by their choice is called "Bala" which is an experience borrowed from the action of the tester. And similar to His saying: 'And We will certainly test you until We know the strivers among you.'

If you say: How does the saying 'Which of you is best in action' relate to the act of testing? [Muhammad said: "How does the saying 'Which of you is best in action' relate to the act of testing?" He answered that it means to inform you which of you is best in action, because the test involves knowledge..." Ahmad said: The connection of one of the objects to the other is disputed among grammarians, and the most correct is what is permitted, and in this art it is followed and it is known how it enters and exits.]? I say: From the standpoint that it contains the meaning of knowledge, as if it were said: to inform you which of you is best in action. And if you say: I knew him, is he better in action or not? This sentence falls in place of the second of its objects, as you say: I knew him, he is better in action.

If you say: Do you call this a connection? I say: No, rather the connection is that you place after it what suffices for both objects, like saying: I knew which of them was Amr, and I knew whether Zayd was departing. Do you not see that there is no separation after the precedence of one of the objects between whether what follows it is a source with an interrogative particle or not, and if it were a connection, the two cases would have been distinct as they are in your saying: I knew whether Zayd was departing. And I knew Zayd was departing.

'Best in action': It is said: purer and more correct, because if it is pure but not correct, it will not be accepted, and likewise if it is correct but not pure. The pure is that it is for the sake of Allah, the Most High, and the correct is that it is according to the Sunnah. And it is reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he recited it, and when he reached the saying 'Which of you is best in action', he said: 'Which of you is best in intellect and most cautious of the prohibitions of Allah and quickest in obedience to Allah.'

[This has been discussed at the beginning of Surah Hud.] He means: Which of you has the most complete intellect regarding Allah and understanding of His purposes, and the intent is that He has granted you life by which you can act and from which you can benefit, and He has given you death which calls you to choose good action over bad, for behind it is resurrection and recompense which is inevitable. And He placed death before life, because the strongest motivator for action is the one who has placed his death before his eyes, so it was prioritized because, in relation to the purpose for which the verse was sent, it is more important. And He is the Mighty, the Prevailing, who is not incapacitated by those who do evil actions.

The Forgiving for those who repent from among the wrongdoers, in accordance with the correspondence of one above the other, as one layers a shoe: when he layers it one upon another, and this is described by the source. Or on the essence of layers, or on: it was layered in layers of disparity, and it was read: from disparity. And the meaning of the two constructions is the same, as they say:

They appear from their women. And they manifest. And I took a covenant with him and he took a covenant with me, meaning: there is no difference or disturbance in creation, but it is level and straight. The reality of disparity is the lack of proportion, as if part of something surpasses another and does not match it. From this is their saying: creation is disparate. In contrast to it: it is equal. If you say: What is the position of this sentence in relation to what came before it? I say: It is a description that follows the saying of 'in pairs', and its original form is: what you see in them of disparity, so the saying 'the creation of the Most Merciful' is placed instead of the pronoun to glorify their creation, and to indicate the reason for their safety from disparity: which is that it is the creation of the Most Merciful, and that by His magnificent power He is the one who creates such proportionate creation. The address in 'what you see' is for the Messenger or for every addressee. And His saying, 'So return your sight' is related to it in the sense of causation. He informed him that there is no disparity in their creation, then He said, 'So return your sight' until what I have informed you of becomes clear to you by observation, and no doubt remains with you in it. Do you see any flaws or cracks? The plural of 'futur' is 'futur', which means a crack. It is said: he split it and it split. From it: the split of the camel's tooth, as it is said: it split and it broke. Its meaning is: the flesh split and it emerged. And He commanded him to repeat his sight in them, searching and following, seeking a defect and flaw. If you return your sight and repeat your gaze, your sight will not return to you with what you sought of seeing the flaw and perceiving the defect, but rather it will return to you with disappointment and weariness, meaning: far from hitting what was sought. It is as if he is driven away from that by smallness and humiliation. And by exhaustion and fatigue due to the length of looking and searching. If you say: How does the sight return disappointed and weary after returning twice? I say: The meaning of the dual form is repetition with frequency. It was said: 'Why specify two returns?' It was answered that the meaning of duality here is to indicate abundance. And in His saying, 'Your sight will return to you disappointed' the apparent is placed instead of the implied. And there is a benefit in it: to indicate that what returns disappointed and weary, not perceiving the flaws, is the tool by which one seeks to perceive what exists, and if it perceives nothing, it indicates that there is nothing. From this is His saying, 'He created seven heavens in layers; what do you see in the creation of the Most Merciful of disparity?' Its original form is: what you see in their creation of disparity, but He mentioned them as flowing from the creation of the Most Merciful, indicating the reason that elevated them above flaws and disparity.