Tafsir of An-Nisa' 4:122

(And those who believe and do righteous deeds): This is a nominal sentence (mubtada') whose predicate is His saying, exalted is He: (We shall admit them to gardens under which rivers flow, abiding therein forever). Abu al-Baqa' permitted that the relative pronoun (al-mawsul) be in the accusative case due to an omitted verb explained by what follows it, but its weakness is not hidden. This is a promise to the believers following a threat to the disbelievers; the Glorious and Exalted linked them together to increase the joy of His loved ones and the distress of His enemies.

(The promise of Allah is truth): That is, He promised them a promise and made it definitively true. The first [word, 'promise'] is a confirmation of itself—all of it ending in an alif of customary usage—since the content of the preceding sentence admits no other interpretation, as a promise is nothing but news of delivering benefits before their occurrence. The second [word, 'truth'] is a confirmation of something else, as in "Zayd is standing, in truth," for a declarative sentence, considered in itself and cut off from its speaker, admits of truth and falsehood, or right and wrong. It was also permitted that wa'd (promise) be in the accusative as an infinitive (masdar) for "We shall admit them," according to what Abu al-Baqa' said, though it is not from the same root, because it carries the meaning of "We promise them admission into gardens," and haqqan (truth) would then be a state (hal) derived from it.

(And who is more truthful than Allah in statement?): This is a tailing clause (tadhyil) to the preceding speech, confirming it. The waw is parenthetical (i'tiradiyyah). Al-qil is an infinitive (masdar) of qala (to say), similar to al-qal. According to Ibn al-Sikkit, they are nouns, not infinitives, and its accusative case is by way of specification (tamyiz). The intensity within the interrogative form, the specification of the Majestic Name of the Essence that encompasses all attributes, the construction of the form af'al (more/most), and the placement of 'statement' as a specification are all apparent in their hyperbole. The objective is to contrast the false promises of Satan to his companions—which deluded them until they deserved the threat—with the truthful promise of Allah, the Exalted, to His close allies, which brought them to the ultimate happiness. For this reason, He, the Glorified, used hyperbole in it and emphasized it as an incitement to attain it and a desire for it.

Some have claimed that the waw is conjunctive and the sentence is conjoined to an omitted phrase, meaning: "Allah has spoken the truth, and who is more truthful than Allah in statement?"—that is, there is none more truthful than Him. It is not hidden that this is an unnecessary affectation. It seems the motive for it was inattention to the rule of the waw when it enters a tailing sentence, or the assumption that the sentence is an object of an omitted verb, meaning: "And saying: Who is more truthful than Allah in statement?"—making it a conjunction to khalidina (abiding), which is even more severe and bitter.

The Kufan readers, other than 'Asim, and Warsh, recited it with ishmam (blending) of the sad with the zay.