and share, whereas at the beginning of the surah what pertains to him is mentioned before what pertains to them—
this is one of the subtleties of language and marvels of expression grasped only by the masters and champions of eloquence. The surah entails disavowal and the apportionment between him and them of the two religions—monotheism and polytheism—with each content with his share. The one who is in the right is the one making the division: he has set out the two portions and distinguished the two shares. He knows that they are content with their lowly share, than which nothing could be worse or more debased, while he has secured the nobler share and the greatest portion. It is like someone dividing poison and a remedy between himself and another person, with the other person content to take the poison. He tells him: “You shall have no part in my share, nor shall I have any part in yours. Yours is your share, and mine is my share.”
Mentioning the other party’s share first here is thus more fitting and eloquent. It is as though he were saying: “This is your share, which you chose to put first, claiming that it was the nobler of the two shares and more deserving of precedence.” Giving their share precedence in the wording thus carries a mockery of them and a proclamation of their poor choice and the ugliness of what they have accepted for themselves. This has a beauty and clarity of expression that would be absent if he mentioned his own share first. The judge of this is literary taste. A perceptive person needs only the slightest indication, whereas no amount of explanation benefits someone slow to understand.
There is a second explanation: the purpose of the surah is to declare the Prophet’s disavowal—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—of their religion and what they worship. This is its essence and central intent. Their disavowal of his religion and the One he worships is mentioned as a secondary purpose, completing and confirming his disavowal. Since the intended purpose is his disavowal of their religion, the surah begins with it. Then His words, “For you is your religion,” accord with this meaning: I have no part in your religion, nor do I agree with you concerning it. Rather, it is a false religion belonging exclusively to you, in which I shall never have any part. Thus the end of the surah corresponds to its beginning. Reflect on this.
As for the eleventh question: does this declaration that they have their religion and he has his constitute acquiescence, so that it is abrogated? Or is the verse neither abrogated nor restricted in scope?
This is a question of great significance, among the most important discussed here. Many people have misunderstood this surah, supposing it to have been abrogated by the verse of the sword, because they believed that this verse entailed acquiescence