(1–3) “In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Hā Mīm. The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Almighty, the All-Knowing—the Forgiver of sin, the Accepter of repentance, severe in punishment, and Possessor of boundless bounty. There is no deity except Him; to Him is the final return.”

The Exalted informs us about His magnificent Book: it proceeds from Allah and has been sent down by Him—the One worshiped and adored because of His perfection and His uniqueness in His actions. He is “the Almighty,” who, by His might, has subdued every created being, and “the All-Knowing,” whose knowledge encompasses everything.

He is “the Forgiver of sin” for sinners, “the Accepter of repentance” from those who repent, “severe in punishment” toward those who dare to commit sins and do not repent of them, and the “Possessor of boundless bounty,” meaning gracious favor and all-encompassing beneficence.

Having established what He established of His perfection—which necessarily means that He alone is the God who is worshiped and to whom all deeds must be sincerely devoted—He said: “There is no deity except Him; to Him is the final return.”

The connection between mentioning that the Quran was sent down by Allah and describing Him with these attributes is that these attributes encompass all the meanings contained in the Quran.

The Quran either speaks of Allah’s names, attributes, and actions—and these are names, attributes, and actions;

or it speaks of unseen matters of the past and future, which form part of what the All-Knowing teaches His servants;

or it speaks of His tremendous blessings and immense favors, together with the commands that lead to them—and this is indicated by His words, “Possessor of boundless bounty”;

or it speaks of His severe retribution and the acts of disobedience that warrant and entail it—and this is indicated by His words, “severe in punishment”;

or it calls sinners to repentance, to turn back to Allah, and to seek forgiveness—and this is indicated by His words, “the Forgiver of sin, the Accepter of repentance, severe in punishment”;

or it declares that He alone is the God who is worshiped, presents rational and scriptural proofs of this, urges people to worship Him, forbids the worship of anything besides Allah, presents rational and scriptural proofs of the falsity of such worship, and warns against it—and this is indicated by the Exalted’s words, “There is no deity except Him”;

or it speaks of His just judgment of recompense, the reward of those who do good, and the punishment of the disobedient—and this is indicated by His words, “to Him is the final return.”

These are all the sublime themes contained in the Quran.