Tafsir of Al Imran 3:5

(Indeed, nothing is hidden from Allah in the earth or in the heaven.) This is an inception to explain the vastness of His knowledge, Glorified is He, and His encompassment of everything in the universe, among which is the faith of the believer and the disbelief of the disbeliever, following the statement regarding the perfection of His power and the greatness of His might.

In expressing this, there is a nurturing of the threat and an indication of the proof of His being Ever-Living, as well as an awakening to the fact that attaining knowledge of some unseen matters—as occurred with Jesus, peace be upon him—is far removed from reaching the rank of Divine attributes.

The intended meaning of "the earth and the heaven" is the universe in its entirety. Those who considered it a figurative expression (majāz) did so by applying the part to mean the whole. As for those who argued that it cannot be [true] regarding "all" to use a part to mean the whole—based on the requirement of a true composition and the cessation of that whole with the cessation of that part—they regarded what is mentioned as a metonymy (kināyah) rather than a figurative expression.

The precedence of "the earth" over "the heaven" is to demonstrate concern for the affairs of its inhabitants and to emphasize what points to the threat against the misguided among them, and so that the mention of the heaven follows as a form of ascension. It has been said: This is why the negation particle was placed between them.

The negated sentence is the predicate of "Indeed" (Inna), and the repetition of the attribution is for the strengthening of the judgment. The word "in" (fī) is attached to an omitted element that functions as an adjective for "something," emphasizing its generality, which is derived from its occurrence in the context of negation. That is: nothing whatsoever that exists in the entire universe is hidden from Him, regardless of the nature of the containment. Expressing this through "non-hiddenness" is more eloquent than expressing it through "knowledge." Abu al-Baqa' permitted the prepositional phrase to be attached to "is hidden" (yakhfā).