“Not dispensed with” (1); and “not met with ingratitude” means that Allah’s blessing in it is not denied (2), but gratefully acknowledged, with neither recognition of it nor praise for it concealed (3).’
The second view is that this refers to Allah, glorified and exalted is He.”
He said: “Al-Khattābī (4) held that this entire supplication refers to the Creator, exalted is He, and that the pronoun refers back to Him. The words ‘ghayr makfiyy’ mean that He feeds but is not fed, as though the word here were derived from kifāyah (sufficiency)” (5).
Others also adopted this interpretation of the expression, namely (6), that He, exalted is He, has no need of a helper or supporter.
He said: “The meaning (7) of ‘nor forsaken’ is that requests to Him are not abandoned,
(1) B reads: mustaghnan (dispensed with).
(2) B reads: mahwiyya!
(3) In B, the interlinear annotation above mastūr (concealed) reads: “Perhaps mustawfan (rendered in full)!” It has no place here.
(4) The imam and eminent scholar Abū Sulaymān Hamd ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Khattābī was born in Bust—in the region of Kabul, Afghanistan—in 319 AH. He was an authority on Quranic exegesis, hadith, usūl (foundational disciplines), and language, and the first jurist to write on disputation. He studied kalām (speculative theology) under al-Ash‘arī, who in turn studied jurisprudence under him. He died in Bust in 386 AH, or, according to another account, 388 AH. May Allah have mercy on him.
See: al-Sam‘ānī, al-Ansāb, 5/158; Wafayāt al-A‘yān, 2/214; al-Dhahabī, al-Siyar, 17/23.
(5) See: al-Khattābī, A‘lām al-Hadīth, 3/2056; Ma‘ālim al-Sunan, 4/187.
(6) Omitted in B.
(7) Omitted in A.