“We shall make you recite, so you will not forget, except what Allah wills. Indeed, He knows what is spoken openly and what is hidden. We shall make the way of ease easy for you. So remind, if the reminder benefits. He who fears Allah will take heed, but the most wretched will shun it—the one who will burn in the greatest Fire.” (6–12)
“We shall make you recite”: We shall teach you through Gabriel’s recitation to you (1). “So you will not forget, except what Allah wills”: except what Allah wills you to forget, and what Allah has abrogated from the Quran in its recitation, as He says: “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten...” (al-Baqarah 2:106). Causing something to be forgotten is a type of abrogation.
Mujahid and Al-Kalbi said: Whenever Gabriel, peace be upon him, came down to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, Gabriel would not finish the end of a verse before the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, began reciting its beginning, out of fear that he might forget it. Allah Most High therefore revealed: “We shall make you recite, so you will not forget.” Thereafter, he did not forget (2) anything (3).
“Indeed, He knows what is spoken openly,” whether in word or deed, “and what is hidden” of both. That is, He knows what is secret and what is public.
“We shall make the way of ease easy for you.” Muqatil said: We shall make easy for you the deeds of the people of Paradise—this is also the meaning of Ibn Abbas’s statement—and enable you to do good deeds. “The way of ease” means doing good.
It was also said: We shall grant you success in following the easy religious law: the upright and tolerant faith.
And it was said that this is connected to the preceding words. Its meaning is: He knows what you recite aloud to Gabriel after he has completed the recitation, and “what is hidden”: what you recite within yourself for fear of forgetting. Then He promised him, saying: “We shall make the way of ease easy for you”—that is, We shall make revelation easy for you, so that you may retain and learn it.
“So remind”: admonish through the Quran, “if the reminder benefits”—that is, the admonition and reminder. The meaning is: whether it benefits or does not benefit. The second case was omitted, just as He says: “Garments that protect you from the heat,” meaning both heat and cold.
“He who fears Allah will take heed”: he will be admonished.
“But the most wretched will shun it”: that is, he will avoid the reminder and keep far away from it. The most wretched is the one decreed wretched in Allah’s knowledge.
“The one who will burn in the greatest Fire”: the immense and dreadful Fire, for it is greater and more intensely hot than the fire of this world.