Tafsir of Al-Hajj 22:61

"That" is a reference to the victory signified by His saying—Exalted is He—(He will surely help him). The distance implied in the demonstrative pronoun serves to signal the loftiness of its rank. It is also said that it is used because the referent is not explicitly mentioned. Its place is in the nominative case as an initial (mubtada'), and its predicate is His saying—Glorified is He—(that Allah causes the night to enter into the day and causes the day to enter into the night).

The 'ba' in it is causal, and the cause is that which is indicated by what follows through the way of necessity; meaning, that victory exists for the reason that Allah—may His affair be exalted—is capable of concealing some of His creations with others and of alternating between opposing things, for such is His habit. This is expressed as inserting one of the two colors into the other, such that He increases one by what He diminishes from the other, which is most consistent with the term 'insertion' (ilaj), or by bringing about one in the place of the other, as has been said; it is not, as some have imagined, that He places a night between every two days and a day between every two nights, because the former is the most manifest of substances and the clearest of them.

Alternatively, it may be [interpreted as] existing because He—Exalted is He—is the Creator of the night and the day and the disposer of them, and thus, what occurs within them at the hands of His servants—of good, evil, oppression, and victory—is not hidden from Him, as has been said.

According to the first interpretation, His saying—Exalted is He—(and that Allah is Hearing) of all that is heard, among which is what the oppressed one says, (is Seeing) of all that is seen, among which is what occurs from him of actions, is a necessary complement to the judgment. For the helper must necessarily possess the power to aid the oppressed and the knowledge that he is indeed oppressed. According to the second, it is a completion and a confirmation. The first is more deserving.

It is also said: It is not far-fetched that the meaning is that the victory is due to the succession of night and day and the rotation of times and eras until the time comes which the Sovereign, the Compeller, has decreed for the victory of the oppressed and his triumph. The issue with this is that it has no substance unless one considers the power of the One who performs that [action].

It is also said: It is possible that the reference is to the attribute of Pardon and Forgiveness; meaning, this attribution is because He—Exalted is He—does not seize people for their sins, for if He did, the night and day would be everlasting, and interests would be suspended. The issue with this is that, aside from not suiting the context, it is not apparent, especially when considering the conjunction of His saying—Exalted is He—(and that Allah is Hearing, Seeing) to the object of the 'ba' mentioned previously.