and to singular and plural, with the pronoun thus referring to its feminine sense, its femininity being grammatical rather than natural—hence “Successful indeed is” uses the masculine form qad aflaha rather than the feminine qad aflahat—the answer to them is: Besides departing from eloquent Arabic, this construction is valid only when the wording indicates that meaning, as in “And whoever …” (1), on the understanding that what is intended is “for us”; likewise in His words:

“Among them are those who listen to you,”

and similar expressions.

Here, however, neither the word “whoever” nor what follows it indicates that it refers to the grammatically feminine noun “soul.” Words cannot be assigned an intended meaning for which they provide no indication. The speech of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is above such a thing.

Even supposing that the pronoun in “purifies it” could refer either to “a soul” or to “whoever”—although nothing in the word “whoever” requires the pronoun to refer back to it—referring it to the feminine noun would be more appropriate than referring it to a word that admits both masculine and feminine reference. Indeed, the latter is more evidently masculine, since it gives no indication of femininity.

When a statement admits two meanings, it must be understood according to the more apparent of the two. Whoever forces another interpretation departs from established Arabic usage, and the Quran is above that. Departing without evidence from what the wording plainly indicates to something it does not indicate is absolutely impermissible. How much more so when its meaning is unequivocal! Allah has stated that He inspires both piety and wickedness. A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.