Tafsir of Qaf 50:16

"And We have certainly created man and We know what his soul whispers to him" — that is, what it speaks to him, which is what crosses the mind. Waswasa (whispering) is a subtle sound, from which the waswas (clinking/jingling) of jewelry is derived. The pronoun in "to him" refers to the human. "What" (ma) is relative, and the ba is connected to "whispers." It is also permitted that the ba indicates accompaniment or is pleonastic, though that is not as strong. It is also permissible for "what" to be an infinitive particle (masdariyyah), with the pronoun referring to the human, and the ba used for transitivity, meaning that the soul makes the human the one performing the whispering; thus, the speaker is the human himself, because whispering is akin to speech. This is similar to saying "his soul spoke to him of such and such," just as they say "his soul spoke to him of such and such." Labid said: "And I call the soul a liar when it speaks to me, for believing the soul diminishes hope."

"And We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein."

That is, We know him and his states; nothing of his secrets is hidden from Us. This is a case where the cause is mentioned but the effect is intended, for proximity to a thing is, by habit, a cause for knowing it and its states. Alternatively, the speech is metaphorical, and there is no room to interpret it as physical proximity, given His—Glory be to Him—transcendence above that. The words of those who profess the doctrine of Unity (Ahl al-Wahdah) are difficult for anyone other than those who possess [mystical] states to comprehend.

"The jugular vein" (habl al-warid) is an idiom for extreme proximity, like their saying "the seat of the midwife" or "the seat of the loincloth." Dhu al-Rumma said, according to the Kashshaf: "And death is closer to me than the jugular vein." The "rope" (habl) is well-known, and what is meant by it here is the vein due to its resemblance to it. Its genitive addition (idafah) to the "jugular" (al-warid)—which is a specific vein as you will soon know—is for clarification, like [the phrase] "the Arak tree" (shajar al-arak), or it is for specification (lamiyyah), as in other cases of adding the general to the specific. If "rope" is kept to its literal meaning, its addition is like [the phrase] "silver of water."

The "jugular" (warid) is a large vein in the neck. It is reported from al-Athram that it is the "river of the body." It is called warid in the neck, watin in the heart, abhar in the back, akhal and nasa in the arm and thigh, and aslam in the little finger. The famous opinion is that in each side of the neck there is a vein called the jugular. In the Kashshaf: "The jugulars are two veins encompassing the sides of the neck in its front, connected to the watin, and they return—according to observation—from the head to it." Thus, warid is in the form of fa'il in the sense of fa'il (an active participle). It is also said it is in the sense of maf'ul (passive), because the animal spirit returns to it. Al-Raghib points to this, saying: "The jugular is a vein connected to the liver and heart, and within it is the conduit of the spirit." Regarding the verse, he said: "That is, We are closer to him than his own soul," and this was also narrated from some others.