(6) “Those who have been given knowledge see that what has been revealed to you from your Lord is the truth and guides to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy.”
After mentioning that some deny the resurrection and regard what was revealed to His Messenger as untrue, Allah Most High describes the state of those servants who have been granted success—namely, the people of knowledge. They recognize that the Book Allah revealed to His Messenger, together with all the accounts it contains, is the truth. Indeed, the truth is confined to it, while whatever opposes or contradicts it is false, for their knowledge has brought them to the level of certainty.
They also recognize that, through its commands and prohibitions, it “guides to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy.” This is because they are certain of the truthfulness of what it relates on many grounds: their knowledge of the truthfulness of the one who conveyed it; its agreement with actual events and the previous scriptures; their witnessing its foretold events come to pass before their very eyes; their observation of the tremendous signs attesting to it throughout the horizons and within themselves; and its agreement with what is indicated by Allah Most High’s names and attributes.
They see that its commands and prohibitions guide to the straight path, which enjoins every quality that purifies the soul, increases the reward, and benefits both the one who practices it and others—such as truthfulness, sincerity, dutifulness to parents, maintaining kinship ties, and showing kindness to all creation. It also forbids every vile quality that sullies the soul, nullifies reward, and incurs sin and its burden, including associating partners with Allah, adultery, usury, and violating people’s lives, property, and honor.
This is a distinction and virtue belonging to the people of knowledge, as well as a sign by which they are known: the greater a servant’s knowledge, the firmer his affirmation of the accounts brought by the Messenger, and the deeper his understanding of the wisdom behind his commands and prohibitions, the more fully he belongs among those people of knowledge whom Allah has made witnesses to the truth of what the Messenger brought. Allah cites their testimony as evidence against the obstinate deniers, as He does in this verse and elsewhere.