(7–8) “He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne was upon the water, that He might test you as to which of you is best in deeds. Yet if you say, ‘You will surely be raised after death,’ those who disbelieve will certainly say, ‘This is nothing but manifest magic.’ If We defer the punishment from them for a limited period, they will surely say, ‘What is holding it back?’ Behold, on the day it comes upon them, it will not be averted from them, and what they used to ridicule will engulf them.”
Allah Most High informs us that He “created the heavens and the earth in six days,” the first of which was Sunday and the last Friday. “And,” when He created the heavens and the earth, “His Throne was upon the water,” above the seventh heaven.
After creating the heavens and the earth, He rose over the Throne, managing affairs and directing them as He wills through His decrees governing creation and His rulings in the Sacred Law. He therefore said: “That He might test you as to which of you is best in deeds.” That is, to test you. Having created for you all that is in the heavens and the earth, He tests you through His commands and prohibitions and sees which of you is best in deeds.
Al-Fudayl ibn Iyād, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “The most sincere and the most correct.”
He was asked, “Abū Alī, what does ‘the most sincere and the most correct’ mean?”
He replied: “If a deed is sincere but not correct, it is not accepted. If it is correct but not sincere, it is not accepted. It must be both sincere and correct. Sincerity means that it is done for Allah alone, while correctness means that it conforms to the Sacred Law and the Sunnah.” This accords with the words of Allah Most High:
“I did not create the jinn and humankind except to worship Me.”
Allah Most High also said:
“Allah is the One who created seven heavens, and the like of them from the earth. His command descends among them so that you may know that Allah has power over all things and that Allah encompasses all things in His knowledge.”
Allah Most High therefore created His creatures to worship Him and to know Him through His names and attributes, and He commanded them to do so. Whoever submits and fulfills what He has commanded is among the successful, while those who turn away from it are the losers. He will inevitably gather them in an abode where He will recompense them for their response to His commands and prohibitions.
Allah therefore mentioned the polytheists’ denial of recompense, saying:
“Yet if you say, ‘You will surely be raised after death,’ those who disbelieve will certainly say, ‘This is nothing but manifest magic.’”
That is, if you were to tell these people and inform them of resurrection after death, they would not believe you. Rather, they would reject you in the strongest possible terms (1), impugn what you had brought, and say: “This is nothing but manifest magic”—though it is the manifest truth.
“If We defer the punishment from them for a limited period”—that is, until an appointed time—and they deem it slow in coming, then, out of their ignorance and injustice, they will say: “What is holding it back?” This statement amounts to denying it, for they cite its failure to befall them immediately as proof that the Messenger who foretold the punishment was lying. How far-fetched such reasoning is!
“Behold, on the day” the punishment “comes upon them, it will not be averted from them” to give them an opportunity to reconsider their situation.
“And what they used to ridicule will engulf them”—that is, the punishment will descend upon them—⦗378⦘ because they treated it lightly until they became certain that the one who warned them of it was lying.