Surah Al-Baqarah 2:110
ﲢ ﲣ ﲤ ﲥ ﲦ ﲧ ﲨ ﲩ ﲪ ﲫ ﲬ ﲭ ﲮ ﲯ ﲰ ﲱ ﲲ ﲳ ﲴ
And establish prayer and give zakah, and whatever good you put forward for yourselves - you will find it with Allah. Indeed, Allah of what you do, is Seeing.
Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:110
Tafsir
Ruh al-Ma'ani
Verse range: 2:110
{And whatever good you put forth for yourselves} Meaning: any good whatsoever. In this, there is an emphasis on the command regarding pardoning and overlooking, and [concerning] prayer and zakat, as well as an encouragement toward them. The *lam* (in *li-anfusikum*) denotes benefit. Specifying "good" as only prayer and charity is contrary to the apparent meaning. It has been recited as *tuqdimu* (you send forth), derived from *qadima* (to arrive) from a journey, or *aqdamahu* (he made him arrive), meaning he caused him to arrive. This is close to the first [reading], and not from *al-iqdam* (daring/advancing), the opposite of *al-ihjam* (holding back).
{You will find it with Allah} Meaning: you will find its reward in His presence—Glorified is He. Thus, the speech involves the omission of a genitive (i.e., the reward of it). It is said: The apparent meaning is that you will find it in the knowledge of Allah Almighty, and Allah Almighty is aware of it; however, there is hyperbole regarding the perfection of His knowledge, so the existence of the [deed] in His knowledge is made equivalent to the existence of the [deed] itself in His presence. This hyperbole is confirmed by His statement—Glorified is He: {Indeed, Allah is All-Seeing of what you do}. He rendered all that they do as objects of His sight. Thus, He expressed His knowledge through "sight," even though only a small portion of what they do constitutes visible things. It is as if for this reason Al-Zamakhshari interpreted "All-Seeing" (*al-basir*) as "All-Knowing" (*al-alim*).
As for the statement of the scholar that this is an indication of negating the [divine] attributes, and that the meaning of Hearing and Sight in relation to Him—Glorified is He—is nothing but the connection of His Essence to the objects of knowledge, the response is that the interpretation [of Zamakhshari] only indicates that the meaning of "All-Seeing" here is "All-Knowing," but there is no evidence that it [the attribute] is the Essence itself, nor that it is something additional to it, nor that there is no meaning for Hearing and Sight in relation to Him—Glorified is He—other than the aforementioned connection.
It is [also] recited as ya‘malun (they do) with the ya (third person). In that case, the pronoun is an allusion to "many" or to "the People of the Scripture," making it a concluding clause for His statement: {so pardon and overlook}, confirming the content of the purpose. It is appropriate that it be a warning to them, to serve as a consolation and a preparation for the believers regarding pardoning and overlooking, and to remove the impatience for the arrival of the command. It is also permitted that it be an allusion to the believers addressed by the preceding commands, and the speech is a warning to the believers. The benefit is derived from the iltifat (shift of person) occurring in the turn from the second person to the third person, which is the specific subtlety of this iltifat. It is not hidden that this is a statement to which no attention should be paid.