This is like His statement in the Quran:

“If you have believed in Allah and in what We sent down to Our servant on the Day of Criterion—the day the two armies met. And Allah has power over all things.”

Al-Wālibī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning “the Day of Criterion”: “The day of Badr, on which Allah distinguished truth from falsehood.” Ibn Abī Hātim said: “Similar explanations were reported from Mujāhid, Muqsim, ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah, al-Dahhāk, Qatāda and Muqātil ibn Hayyān.”

Most of them also understood His statement in this sense:

“If you fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion.”

This is like His statement:

“And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out.”

That is, out of every difficulty that constrains people. Al-Wālibī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His statement, “If you fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion,” that it means “a way out.” Ibn Abī Hātim said: “The same was reported from Mujāhid, ʿIkrima, al-Dahhāk, Qatāda, al-Suddī and Muqātil ibn Hayyān, except that Mujāhid said: ‘A way out in this world and the Hereafter.’” It was also reported through al-Dahhāk that Ibn ʿAbbās said: “Victory.” He added: “The concluding wording from Ibn ʿAbbās and al-Suddī is ‘deliverance.’”

Concerning “He will grant you a criterion,” ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr said: “A separation between truth and falsehood, through which Allah makes your truth manifest and extinguishes the falsehood of those who oppose you.”

Al-Baghawī related that Muqātil ibn Hayyān said: “A way out of doubts in this world.” This, however, may be an explanation of what Muqātil ibn Hayyān meant, just as Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī related from Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, ʿIkrima, al-Dahhāk and Ibn