we deduce that the Qur’an is not created, taking as our proof His words “from Our command.” The reasoning is that Allah says elsewhere, “Surely, His is the creation and the command” (al-Aʿrāf 54). Here “the command” is set in contrast to “the creation,” and since the Qur’an belongs to the realm of the command rather than the realm of creation, it follows that the Qur’an is uncreated.
As for His words, “You did not know what the Book was, nor faith,” the verb tadri (“to know”) normally takes two objects; in this construction the interrogative particle ma suspends them. Ma functions as the subject, “the Book” as its predicate, and the resulting subject–predicate clause stands in the place of the two objects of tadri. In other words, the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had no knowledge of either the Book or faith before it was revealed to him.
His words, “But We have made it a light by which We guide whom We will,” mean: We have turned this Spirit that We revealed to you into a light by which We guide whom We please among Our servants. The phrase “whom We will of Our servants” is general; we cannot know whom Allah wills to guide through the Qur’an. Yet, if we refer back to the preceding verse, it becomes clear that those whom He guides by it are the servants who seek His pleasure.
Then He says, “And indeed you guide to a straight path.” In the same passage He has already said, “We guide by it,” and there is a difference between the two kinds of guidance. “We guide by it” refers to the guidance of granting success and divine enablement, which is why it is expressed with the preposition bi (“by it”)—“guide by it whom.” By contrast, “you guide to a straight path” is the guidance of indication and instruction. The Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, points people to Allah, but the actual bestowal of success is not in his hands. Allah says, “Indeed, you do not guide whom you love” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:56). Thus, while the Prophet shows people the way, the guidance of success belongs solely to Allah.
He, the Exalted, then says: “the path of Allah, to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth.”