religious innovation, who oppose what he brought and call people to something other than his Sunnah. When the Messenger’s successors and heirs say to them, “For you is your religion, and for us is ours,” this does not imply approval of their innovation. Rather, they say this to disavow them and their innovation, while remaining committed to refuting them and striving against them as far as they are able.

These few words and this brief account, highlighting the greatness of this surah, its majesty, its purpose and its wondrous composition, are what Allah the Magnificent has enabled me to set forth, without consulting any Quranic commentary or searching for these observations in sources where they might be found. Rather, they elucidate what Allah has taught and inspired, by His grace and generosity. Allah knows that, had I found them in a book, I would have attributed them to their author and praised them highly. May Allah, the Bestower of grace, whose bounty is vast and whose giving is beyond comparison with that of His creatures, help me write a commentary along these lines and in this style.

I have written on scattered passages of the Quran in this manner, as insights occurred to me during my stays in Mecca and Jerusalem. In Allah I place my hope that He will perfect His favor.