By night and day, constantly without fatigue, fully engrossed in all the times. So my calling did not increase them in anything but flight. The meaning is that they increased in flight from Him, because it is the cause of the increase. Similar to 'and it increased them in wickedness to their wickedness.' And 'it increased them in faith to forgive them,' so that they might repent from their disbelief and He would forgive them. He mentioned the cause, which is their pure share, to make their aversion from it more disgraceful. They blocked their ears from listening to the call and covered themselves with their garments, as if they sought their garments to cover them, or to cover them so that they would not see Him, in dislike of looking at the face of one who advises them in the religion of Allah. It was said: so that He would not recognize them, and this is supported by His saying, 'Indeed, they fold their chests to hide from Him. Indeed, when they cover themselves with their garments.' Persistence: from the persistence of the donkey on the bridle. If he folds his ears and approaches it, he bites it and drives it away: it is a metaphor for turning towards sins and being engrossed in them. And they were arrogant, and pride took hold of them from following Noah. The mention of the source is an affirmation and indication of their extreme reception and rebellion. If you say: He mentioned that he called them night and day, then he called them openly, then he called them in secret and openly, it must be that there are three different calls for the conjunction to be correct. I say: He indeed did, blessings and peace be upon him, as one who enjoins good and forbids evil does: beginning with the easier and progressing to the more severe. He started with private advice, and when they did not accept, he turned to public calling, and when that did not have an effect, he combined both secrecy and openness. The meaning of 'then' indicates the distance of the states, for public calling is more severe than private, and combining both is more severe than singling out one of them. And 'openly' is in the accusative because of their calling, the source is in the accusative because calling is one type of the open call, so it is in the accusative like 'sitting' is in the accusative because it is one of the types of sitting. Or because he intended by their calling to make it open to them. It may also be an adjective for the source of calling, meaning calling openly, that is, making it known. Or a source in the position of a state, meaning, making it openly known. He commanded them to seek forgiveness, which is repentance from disbelief and sins, and he presented to them the promise that is more impactful in their souls and more beloved to them than present benefits and immediate advantages, encouraging them towards faith and its blessings and obedience and its results from the good of the two abodes, as He said, 'And another that you love: victory from Allah.' And if the people of the towns had believed and been conscious of Allah, We would have opened upon them blessings. And if they had established the Torah and the Gospel and what was revealed to them from their Lord, they would have eaten from above them. And if they had remained steadfast on the path, We would have given them to drink. It was said: When they denied him after long repetition of the call, Allah withheld the rain from them and made their women’s wombs barren for forty years. It was narrated: seventy. So He promised them that if they believed, Allah would grant them abundance and remove from them what they were in. And from Umar, may Allah be pleased with him: he went out to seek rain, and he did not do anything but seek forgiveness. It was said to him: We did not see you seek rain! He said: I have sought rain with the means of the heavens by which rain is brought down. He likened seeking forgiveness to the true winds that do not miss.

And from Al-Hasan: A man complained to him about drought, so he said, 'Seek forgiveness from Allah.' Another complained to him about poverty, another about the lack of offspring, and another about the low yield of his land. He ordered them all to seek forgiveness. Then Al-Rabi' bin Sabih said to him: 'Men have come to you complaining about various matters, and you commanded them all to seek forgiveness!' So he recited to him this verse. And the sky: The canopy from which the rain descends to the clouds. It may refer to the clouds or the rain, from His saying: 'When the sky descends upon a people.' The sky is used to refer to the canopy, the clouds, and the rain as here, due to its elevation and height. It is also metaphorically used for plants, as the rain is its cause. Therefore, he said: 'We tended it,' in the speech there is a usage, where the sky is mentioned in one meaning, and the pronoun is returned to it in another meaning. And 'ghadab' is the plural of 'ghadban' and the meaning is: 'We are brave unlike others.' And 'al-mudarar' means the abundant flow, and 'mif'al' is a form that applies to both masculine and feminine, as they say: 'A man or a woman is fragrant and fruitful.' Gardens are orchards, you do not hope for Allah's honor, you do not expect for Him reverence, meaning: glorification.

And the meaning is, what is wrong with you that you are not in a state where you contemplate the glorification of Allah towards you in the abode of reward? [Mahamud said: "What is wrong with you that you are not in a state where Allah, the Exalted, is glorified... etc."] Ahmad said: And this interpretation keeps hope in its place, etc. For Allah, there is an explanation for the one who is honored, and if it were delayed, it would be a connection to honor. And His saying, 'And He has created you in stages,' is in the position of a state, as if He said: What is wrong with you that you do not believe in Allah while this is a state that necessitates belief in Him? For He created you in stages: first, He created you from dust, then He created you from a drop, then He created you as a clinging substance, then He created you as a lump of flesh, then He created you as bones and flesh, then He brought you forth as another creation. Or do you not fear Allah's forbearance and the abandonment of hastening punishment so that you may believe? It was said: What is wrong with you that you do not fear Allah's greatness? Ibn Abbas said: You do not fear Allah's consequence, for the consequence is the state of the stability of affairs and the firmness of reward and punishment, from 'waqar' meaning to be firm and stable. He alerted them to look into themselves first, for it is the closest thing to be contemplated, then to look into the world and what He has fashioned in it of the wondrous signs that testify to the Creator's magnificent power and knowledge from the heavens and the earth and the sun and the moon. 'In them' refers to the heavens, and He is in the lowest heaven, for there is a connection between the heavens in that they are layers. [Mahamud said: "And He is in the lowest heaven because there is a relation between the heavens and the lowest heaven."] Ahmad noted that pearls and corals emerge from both of them. Thus, it is permissible to say: 'in them' such and such, even if it is not in all of them, just as it is said: 'in the city' such and such, while He is in some of its regions. And from Ibn Abbas and Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, it is said that the faces of the sun and the moon are what faces the sky, and their appearance is what faces the earth. [The narration from Ibn Abbas is halted, reported by Ibn Marduyah in Yunus from the narration of Hamad ibn Salamah from Ali ibn Zayd from Yusuf ibn Mahran from him with this wording: 'And their backs to the earth.' Al-Hakim reported from it mentioning the moon only. The narration from Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, is similar, reported by Abdul Razzaq from Ma'mar from Qatadah, who said: Abdullah ibn Umar mentioned it halted. Al-Tabari reported from the route of Hisham al-Dastaway from Qatadah from Sharh ibn Hawshab from Abdullah ibn Umar. 'Note': The original text mistakenly mentioned Ibn Umar. It is actually Umar, may Allah be pleased with him.] And He made the sun a lamp for the people of the world to see in its light as the people of the house see in the light of the lamp what they need to see, while the moon is not so; it is merely a light that does not reach the strength of the sunlight. And similarly, His saying, 'He is the One who made the sun a light and the moon a light,' and the light is stronger than the illumination. The growth is borrowed for creation, as it is said: 'May Allah plant you for good,' and this metaphor is more indicative of occurrence, for if they are plants, they are certainly created, as the occurrence of plants is inevitable. From this, they are called 'the growing ones' and 'the new ones' for the emergence of their doctrine in Islam without precedence for them in it. [The phrase 'without precedence for them in it' indicates that if he meant by 'the growing ones' the Ahl al-Sunnah, their precedence in their doctrine is the Book and the Sunnah.] And from this is their saying: 'So-and-so has emerged' for some of the deviants. The meaning is: I caused you to grow, so you grew as plants. Or it is stated: 'I caused you to grow' to imply the meaning of 'you grew.' Then He will return you in it as buried, then He will bring you forth on the Day of Resurrection, and He confirmed it with the source as if He said: He will certainly bring you forth without a doubt. He made it a spread-out carpet on which you turn about as a man turns on his carpet, wide and spacious.