Regarding His saying, exalted is He: “When this became clear to him” through direct observation, “he said, ‘I know that Allah is over all things competent.’”

Hamzah and al-Kisa’i read it as i‘lam (“Know”), with a jussive ending and in connected recitation, as an imperative; that is, Allah Most High said to him, “Know.” The others read a‘lamu (“I know”), pronouncing the initial hamzah and with the mim in the nominative, as a statement by Ezra: when he saw that, he said, “I know that Allah is over all things competent.”