Chapter on the saying of Allah the Exalted: “They assumed about Allah what is not right—an assumption characteristic of the Age of Ignorance. They said, ‘Do we have any share in the matter?’ Say: ‘Indeed, the entire matter belongs to Allah.’”

The remainder of the verse reads: “They conceal within themselves what they do not disclose to you. They say, ‘If we had had any share in the matter, none of us would have been killed here.’ Say: ‘Even if you had been in your homes, those for whom killing had been decreed would still have come out to their places of death, so that Allah might test what is in your breasts and purify what is in your hearts; and Allah is All-Knowing of what is in the chests.’” [Āl ʿImrān: 154].

Relevance of this chapter to the Book of Monotheism: It underscores that holding a good opinion of Allah is one of the obligations of tawḥīd, whereas harboring an evil opinion of Allah contradicts tawḥīd.

Explanatory notes on vocabulary:
• “They assume”: i.e., the hypocrites; in its root sense, assumption (ẓann) is the opposite of certainty.
• “What is not right”: that is, other than a correct assumption.
• “The assumption of the Age of Ignorance”: an apposition to “what is not right,” meaning the assumption attributed to the ignorant who believed that Allah would not grant victory to His Messenger. The reference to “Ignorance” (jāhiliyyah) is to the period before Islam.
• “They say”: an apposition to “They assume.”
• “Do we have any share in the matter?”: an interrogative intended as a negation, meaning, “We have no share at all in victory or success,” or, “We have been barred from managing our own affairs, so nothing remains under our control.”
• “Say: ‘Indeed, the entire matter belongs to Allah’”: that is, neither you nor anyone else possesses any part of the affair; it is Allah’s alone.