“He said, ‘Its knowledge is with my Lord, in a Record. My Lord neither errs nor forgets—He who made the earth a cradle for you, laid out paths in it for you, and sent down water from the sky; then by it We brought forth diverse kinds of vegetation.’” (52–53)

Pharaoh said, “Then what of the former generations?” The meaning of bāl is “state”; that is: What is the state of the past generations and bygone nations—such as the people of Noah, ‘Ad, and Thamud—with regard to that to which you are calling me? For they used to worship idols and deny the Resurrection. (1)

Moses said, “Its knowledge is with my Lord”; that is, their deeds are preserved with Allah, and He will recompense them for them.

It was also said that Moses referred knowledge of that matter back to Allah because he did not know it, for the Torah was revealed after Pharaoh and his people had perished.

“In a Record,” meaning: in the Preserved Tablet. “My Lord neither errs,” meaning: He does not make a mistake. It was also said: Nothing escapes Him, and nothing is hidden from Him. (2) “Nor does He forget”—that is, He does not err (3) concerning what befell them, such that He would fail to recompense them according to their deeds. It was also said that “He does not forget” means that He does not abandon; rather, He takes retribution from the disbeliever and recompenses the believer.

“He who made the earth a cradle for you”: the scholars of Kufa recited it here and in Surah al-Zukhruf as mahdan, making it a verbal noun, meaning: a spread. The others recited it as mihādan, as in His saying, “Have We not made the earth a resting place?” (Surah al-Naba’, 16)—that is, a bed. It is a noun for that which is spread out, just as bisāṭ is a noun for that which is laid out.