“He begets not” — because His richness makes Him utterly free of any child or partner.
“Nor was He begotten (3)” — on account of His absolute eternality; He is the First and nothing existed before Him.
“And none is comparable to Him (4)” — He has no likeness, no equal, no peer, whether in His Essence, His attributes, or His actions. This verse is akin to His words: “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (42:11).
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The ḥadīth recommends reciting that majestic verse and this noble sūrah after every obligatory prayer, so that one’s remembrance of the Lord is perfected, the deficiencies of the prayer are made up, and one’s faith is renewed five times each day through the recitation of Allah’s Most Beautiful Names and His sublime attributes.
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The text also affirms the reality of the Hereafter, whose first stage is the bliss or the torment of the grave. The comfort of the grave is part of the comfort of Paradise, just as the punishment of the grave is part of the punishment of Hell, for He, exalted is He, has said: “The Fire: they are exposed to it morning and evening, and on the Day the Hour is established it will be said, ‘Admit Pharaoh’s clan to the severest punishment’ (46)” (40:46).
It likewise shows that righteous deeds are a means of entering Paradise, as He says: “A reward for what they used to do (17)” (32:17). This does not contradict what is reported in al-Bukhari (5673) and Muslim (2816), where the Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you will enter Paradise because of his deeds.” They asked, “Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “Not even I, unless Allah envelops me in mercy and bounty.”
Ibn al-Qayyim pointed to this in his Nuniyyah:
Consider the bā’ that clearly sets the cause
of triumph, in the wisdom of the Criterion;
I think the bā’ of negation misled you
in that ḥadīth transmitted by the two Shaykhs.
No striver will ever enter the Gardens at all
through his own effort, even if his eyes bleed with toil.
By Allah, there is no contradiction in the texts;
they all proceed from the All-Merciful.
The affirmative bā’ denotes causation,
while the negative bā’ is the bā’ of price and payment.