“Whoever does righteous deeds while he is a believer, there shall be no denial of his effort; and We are surely recording it for him.” His effort will neither be denied nor rendered void; rather, it will be appreciated and he will be rewarded for it. “And We are surely recording it for him,” meaning: We preserve a record of his deeds. It has also been said that, when ascribed to Allah, appreciation means recompense.

“And it is forbidden for a town…” Hamzah, al-Kisa'i, and Abu Bakr recited it as hirm, with an i-vowel on the initial h and without the long a; the rest recited it with the long a, haram. Both are linguistic variants, like hill and halal.

Ibn Abbas said: The meaning of the verse is: It is forbidden for a town—that is, the inhabitants of a town—“which We have destroyed” to return after their destruction. According to this interpretation, the particle la is supplementary. Others said: Haram here means obligatory. According to this interpretation, la retains its meaning: it is incumbent upon the inhabitants of a town whom We have destroyed that they do not return to this world.

Al-Zajjaj said: Its meaning is: It is forbidden for the inhabitants of a town whom We have destroyed—that is, whom We have decreed to destroy—for their deeds to be accepted, because they do not return, meaning that they do not repent. The evidence for this interpretation is that He said in the preceding verse: “Whoever does righteous deeds while he is a believer, there shall be no denial of his effort,” meaning that his deed will be accepted. He then mentioned this verse immediately afterward and made clear that the deed of the disbeliever is not accepted.

The Exalted says: “Until Gog and Magog are unleashed…” Ibn Amir, Abu Ja'far, and Ya'qub recited it as futtihat, with intensification to indicate multiplicity, while the others recited it without intensification. This means that the barrier restraining Gog and Magog will be opened. “And they rush down from every elevation”: that is, from every raised ground and hill; an elevation is a high place. “They rush down,” meaning that they hasten down from mounds and hills like a wolf's rapid gait—that is, the swiftness of its movement.

They differed concerning the referent of this pronoun. One group said that it refers to Gog and Magog, as indicated by what was narrated to us from al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an, from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said: “Allah will send Gog and Magog, and they will rush down from every elevation.” (1) Another group said that it refers to all created beings, meaning that they will emerge from their graves. This is supported by Mujahid's recitation: “And they, from every grave,” with a j and th, as He said: “Then behold, they will emerge from the graves, rushing towards their Lord.” (Yunus: 51)