Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:37

The meaning of "receiving" the words is to welcome them by taking, accepting, and acting upon them. It is a metaphor derived from people welcoming a loved one returning after a long absence, for they spare no honor in how they receive him; the honor of the words descending from the Divine Presence is in taking, accepting, and acting upon them. The use of "receiving" (talaqqi) implies that Adam, peace be upon him, was at that time in a station of distance.

"From His Lord" is a circumstantial qualifier (hal) for "words," placed before it. It has also been said that it is linked to "received," and it is from the form talaqqaha minhu, meaning he learned/received them from Him. Had it not been for its lack of the subtlety found in the first interpretation, we would have accepted it. Ibn Kathir recited "Adam" in the accusative case (nasb) and "words" in the nominative case (raf’), based on the meaning that the words welcomed him; it is as if they were an honor bestowed upon him because they were the cause of his forgiveness. Receiving can also be used as a metaphor for reaching something, by the causality of the relation.

It is famously narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them) that these words are: "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us..." (the verse). From Ibn Mas’ud, it is: "Glory be to You, O Allah, and with Your praise, and blessed is Your name, and exalted is Your majesty; there is no god but You. I have wronged myself, so forgive me, for none forgives sins but You." It is also said that he saw written on the leg of the Throne: "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," and he sought intercession through him. If the word (Kalimah) is applied to Jesus, peace be upon him, then the words (Kalimat) may be applied to the Greatest Spirit and the Most Noble Beloved (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). For Jesus—nay, even Moses, nay, and [others]—are but some of the manifestations of his lights and a flower from the gardens of his radiance. Other accounts have also been narrated.

"Then He accepted his repentance" (fataba ‘alayhi): Repentance (tawbah) in its origin is returning. When attributed to the servant, it consists of a collection of three matters: knowledge, which is the realization of the harm of the sin and that it is a veil from every beloved; a state (hal) which that knowledge yields, which is the heart’s suffering due to the loss of the beloved, which we call remorse; and an action which that state yields, which is abandoning [the sin], rectifying [the wrong], and resolving not to return to it. Often, it is applied solely to remorse, as it is a necessary consequence of knowledge and an antecedent to action; in the Hadith, "Remorse is repentance." The path to achieving it is perfecting faith through the states of the Hereafter and the harm of sins therein.

When attributed to Him, Exalted is He, it refers to accepting repentance, forgiving the sin, and the like, or granting the success for it and facilitating its causes through what He manifests to the repentant of His signs and what He informs them of regarding His warnings, so that they may feel fear and return to Him. In the Hereafter, it returns to the meaning of grace and compassion; this is why it is used with the preposition ‘ala (upon).

He, Exalted is He, used the fa (then) because the receiving of the words is the very essence of repentance or necessitates it; there is no doubt that acceptance is consequent upon it, so it is for mere causality. It may be said that since repentance is something one remains upon, the consecutive action (ta’qib) is valid with respect to its completion, as there is no interval at that point. In any case, this does not contradict what is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them) that they both wept for two hundred years over what they had missed. He, Glorified is He, did not say "He accepted their repentance" (fataba ‘alayhima) because women are dependent [on men], and mentioning the follower is substituted by mentioning the followed; thus, their mention is omitted in much of the Book and the Sunnah.

The nominal sentence contains that which strengthens the hope of the sinners and mends the broken hearts of the wrongdoers, as He opened it with ‘inna (verily/indeed), introduced the separating pronoun (damir al-fasl), made the predicate definite, and used it in the form of an intensive adjective (mubalagha), a sign of His accepting repentance whenever the servant repents. It is possible that this is due to the multitude of those He accepts repentance from. He combined the descriptors of being "the Accepter of Repentance" (Tawwab) and "the Merciful" (Rahim) as an indication of increased grace. He placed "Tawwab" first because of the apparent relevance to what preceded it. It is said that mentioning "the Merciful" after it is an indication that the acceptance of repentance is not by way of obligation, as the Mu’tazilah claimed, but by way of mercy and grace, and that He is the One whose mercy precedes His wrath; thus, He has mercy on His servant in the very midst of His wrath, just as He made the descent of Adam the cause of his ascent, and his distance the cause of his nearness. Exalted is He as an Accepter of Repentance—how generous He is! And as a Merciful One—how great He is!

If "Tawwab" is interpreted as "the One who returns to forgiveness," then the statement is a postscript (tadhil) to His saying "Then He accepted his repentance." Or, if interpreted as "the One who frequently aids toward repentance," it is a postscript to His saying "Adam received..." and so on. Naufal recited annahu (that He is...) with the hamza opened, based on the assumption of "because He is..."