⦗85–86⦘ “We did not create the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them except in truth. The Hour is surely coming, so pardon with gracious pardon. Your Lord is indeed the All-Creating, the All-Knowing.”

That is, We did not create them in vain and without purpose, as the enemies of Allah suppose. Rather, We created them only “in truth.” Part of this truth is that they and all they contain point to the perfection of their Creator, His power, the vastness of His mercy and wisdom, and His all-encompassing knowledge; and that He alone, without partner, is worthy of worship.

“The Hour is surely coming”—there is no doubt about it, for the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of humankind. “So pardon with gracious pardon”: a pardon that entails no harm. Rather, respond to the offender’s mistreatment with kindness and to his sin with forgiveness, so that you may receive an abundant reward and recompense from your Lord. Everything that is coming is near. Yet a meaning better than the one I mentioned here has become apparent to me:

What is commanded is gracious pardon—that is, good and gracious pardon, free of rancor and of harm in word or deed—not pardon that is ungracious and misplaced. Thus, pardon is not granted when the situation calls for punishment, such as the punishment of transgressing wrongdoers who can be dealt with only by punishment. This is the intended meaning.

“Your Lord is indeed the All-Creating” of every created being, “the All-Knowing” of all things. None of all those encompassed by His knowledge and brought into existence by His creative act can thwart Him—and this includes every existing thing.