(10) “Whoever desires honor, then all honor belongs to Allah. To Him ascends good speech, and righteous deeds raise it up. Those who plot evil deeds will have a severe punishment, and their plotting will come to ruin.”

That is: O you who desire honor, seek it from the One in whose hand it lies. Honor is in Allah’s hand and can be attained only through obedience to Him. He mentions this in the words, “To Him ascends good speech”—including reciting the Quran, glorifying and praising Allah, declaring His oneness, and every other good and wholesome utterance. Such speech is raised to Allah and presented before Him, and Allah praises the one who utters it before the highest assembly. As for “righteous deeds,” including deeds of the heart and deeds of the limbs, Allah likewise raises them to Himself, just as He raises good speech.

It has also been said that righteous deeds raise good speech. Thus, good speech is raised in proportion to a servant’s righteous deeds, for it is those deeds that raise his good speech. If he has no righteous deeds, no words of his will be raised to Allah Most High. These are the deeds that ascend to Allah, and through them Allah elevates and honors those who perform them.

Evil deeds, however, have the opposite effect. Their perpetrator seeks elevation through them, plotting and scheming, but it all recoils upon him, and he only sinks deeper into humiliation and abasement. Hence He says: “Righteous deeds raise it up, while those who plot evil deeds will have a severe punishment,” in which they will be utterly humiliated. “Their plotting will come to ruin”—that is, it will perish and vanish, benefiting them nothing, because it is a plot founded upon falsehood and pursued for a false end.