—glorified and exalted be He—of His servants’ inner secrets and outward states, and affirms that none of this escapes His knowledge, just as no one in the heavens and the earth lies outside His dominion. His knowledge is all-encompassing, and so is His dominion.

Then the Most High states that He will bring them to account for this, meaning that He will make known to them what they revealed or concealed. This thus includes His knowledge of their affairs and His making those affairs known to them. Then He says:

“He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills.”

This includes His governance of them with justice and grace: He forgives whom He wills out of grace and punishes whom He wills with justice. This entails reward and punishment, which necessarily imply commands and prohibitions, which in turn necessarily imply messengership and prophethood.

Then the Most High says:

“And Allah has power over all things.”

This means that absolutely nothing lies beyond His power and that everything brought about by His power occurs by His decree. This refutes the dualist Magians, the philosophers, the Magian Qadariyyah, and all who exclude anything subject to His power from His creation and power—and they comprise many groups.

Thus, the verse affirms Allah’s oneness; His knowledge of particulars and universals; revealed laws and prophetic missions; resurrection, reward, and punishment; the Lord’s governance of His creation with justice and grace; and the perfection and all-encompassing scope of His power. This entails that the world in its entirety came into existence, for that which is beginningless can neither be subject to power nor be something brought into being. Furthermore, affirming the perfection of His knowledge and power necessarily entails affirming all His other attributes