His words, Exalted is He:

Hā, Mīm By the Book that makes things clear.

That is, within it He clearly distinguished guidance from error, good from evil, and expounded the bliss of the fortunate (suʿadāʾ) and the misery of the wretched (ashqiyāʾ).

And it is indeed (with Us) in the Mother of the Book…

He said:

This is the Preserved Tablet.^{1On the Mother of the Book and its association with the Preserved Tablet, see above Tustarī’s commentary on 2:235 and p. 27, n. 84.}

…[and it is] indeed exalted, wise.

He said:

That is, it is elevated and dominant over all the other scriptures.

His words, Exalted is He:

that you may sit upon their backs and then remember your Lord’s grace when you are settled upon them…^{1Verse 12 mentioned the ships and cattle on which human beings are able to ride.}

He said:

Truly, God has privileged the prophets عليهم السلام and some of the veracious (ṣiddīqūn) with the cognisance (maʿrifa) of the blessings (niʿam) that God, Exalted is He, has bestowed upon them, before their disappearance, as well as the knowledge of God’s clemency (ḥilm) with them. However, the blessings of God, Exalted is He, are indeed diminished in the eyes of the person who does not recognise the blessings that God has granted him, other than those pertaining to his eating, drinking and riding [a beast of burden].

His words, Exalted is He:

Yet they assign to Him a part from among His servants…^{1The ‘part’ (juzʾ), is usually understood by commentators to mean ‘offspring’, that is to say that in pre-Islamic times, the Arabs believed that angels were the daughters of God. However, Tustarī frees the word from that traditional association in his comment on this verse.}

⸢He said⸣:

That is, a part in their^{2Translating ʿibādatihim according to all MSS: Z515, f. 97b, F638, f. 45b and F3488, f. 274a, as opposed to ʿibādatihi in the published edition.} worship. Do you not notice how the Prophet ﷺ says, ‘Truly, some of you when they pray only gain from their prayer a third or a quarter of it’?^{3Muḥammad Shams al-Ḥaqq al-ʿAẓīmābādī, ʿAwn al-maʿbūd: sharḥ li-Sunan Abī Dāwud (Beirut, 1998), ‘Kitāb al-Ṣalāt’.}

His words:

…and [We have] raised some of them above others in ranks…

He said:

We raised some of them above others in gnosis (maʿrifa) and obedience (ṭāʿa) [this being their source of] subsistence (ʿaysh) in this world and in the Hereafter.

His words:

…and the mercy of your Lord is better than what they amass.

That is, than an abundance of works done seeking reward.^{1See above, the commentary on 29:17 and p. 149, n. 6, and regarding those who do good works for the sake of the rewards of Paradise (or of this world), 42:20 and p. 181, n. 9.}

His words, Exalted is He:

We assign a devil as a companion for whoever turns away from the remembrance of the Compassionate One.

He said:

God has decreed that any servant who turns away from His remembrance, which is to say that he sees in his heart anything besides Him, and acquiesces in^{1Translating musākinan according to all three MSS: Z515, f. 97b, F638, f. 45b and F3488, f. 274b, instead of sākina in the published edition. On musākina see above Tustarī’s commentary on 2:30 and 273, and p. 16, n. 26.} that thing, will not do so without God putting a devil (shayṭān) in power over him, who will divert him from the path of truth and subject him to temptation.^{2See the commentary on 2:30 above.}

His words, Exalted is He:

So when they had angered Us, We took vengeance on them…

He said:

That is, ‘When they enraged Us by persisting in their transgression against [Our] commandments, by their exhibition of innovations (bidaʿ) in the religion, their abandoning of the traditional ways [of the Prophet] (sunan), due to their pursuit of [their own] opinions^{1Translating al-ārāʾ according to all three MSS: Z515, f. 97b, F638, f. 45b and F3488, f. 274b, instead of wujūd in the published edition.} and desires, We removed the light of gnosis (nūr al-maʿrifa) from their hearts, the lamp of the realisation of [Our] oneness (sirāj al-tawḥīd) from their innermost secrets (asrār), and We entrusted them to their own selves, and to whatever they chose [for themselves]. Consequently they went astray and misled [others].

Then he said:

Following (ittibāʿ) [is the key], following! Emulation (iqtidāʾ) [is the key], emulation! For sure, that was the way of the predecessors (salaf). He who follows [their guidance] will not go astray, but he who innovates will not be saved.

His words, Exalted is He:

Those who believed in Our signs and submitted themselves [to Us will be told], ‘Enter Paradise, you and your spouses, to be made joyful’,

with the delight of the vision [of God] (naẓar), as a reward for the realisation of His oneness (tawḥīd), with which He blesses His friends, when they experience the manifestation of the [divine] unveiling (tajallī al-mukāshafa), this being subsistence with the Subsistent One (baqāʾ maʿa’l-Bāqī). See how He privileges them with faith on the condition that they submit to His command and acquiesce [in a state] of tranquil repose before Him (sukūn bayna yadayhi).

His words, Exalted is He:

…and therein will be whatever souls desire and eyes delight in…

He said:

That is to say, whatever souls desire is^{1Translating hiya, according to MS F638, f. 45b, instead of min, according to the published edition, MS Z515, f. 98a and F3488, f. 274b.} the reward for their works, whereas whatever eyes delight in is the empowerment (tamkīn)^{2Or tamkīn could be translated as ‘stability’. In Sufi manuals, the term tamkīn (stability) is often contrasted with talwīn (vacillation). See, for example, Hujwīrī, Kashf al-maḥjūb, p. 486; trans. Nicholson, p. 372; Qushayrī, Risāla, p. 232.} which God bestows on them at the time of the encounter (liqāʾ) [with Him] as a reward for their realisation of His oneness (tawḥīd).

[Then] he said:

Paradise is the reward for works performed by the bodily members. The encounter is the reward for the realisation of God’s oneness (tawḥīd). Note how God, Exalted is He, has said:

And that is the Paradise which you have been given to inherit [as a reward for] what you used to do.