Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:196

“Indeed, my Protector is Allah who has sent down the Book” (7:196): This is a justification for the lack of concern [for the polytheists], which is clearly understood from the context. The alif-lam in "the Book" (al-Kitab) is for specification (al-'ahd), and what is intended by it is the Qur'an. His—Exalted is He—description of Himself by the act of sending down the Book serves to intimate the evidence of His protection (wilayah). It is as if He placed "He who sent down the Book" in the position of "He who sent me as a messenger," and there is no doubt that being sent [as a messenger] necessitates protection and victory.

It has been said: There is in this an indication of another reason for the lack of concern, as if it were said: "I do not care about you or your associate-gods, because my Protector is Allah, the Exalted, who sent down the Book which proclaims that He is my Protector and my Helper, and that your associate-gods are incapable of helping themselves, let alone helping you."

His—Exalted and Almighty is He—statement, “And He protects the righteous,” is a concluding statement (tadhyil) confirming the content of what preceded it. That is: It is His habit—Glorious is His Majesty—to support the righteous among His servants and not abandon them.

Al-Tayyibi said: He specifically associated the Essence (Ism al-Dhat) with the sending down of the Book, and the verse was made a justification, to signify the grandeur of what was sent down: that it is the separator between truth and falsehood, the illuminator of the darkness of polytheism, the one that silences the tongues of the masters of rhetoric, and the standing miracle in every age. It is the manifest light and the firm rope, through which Allah, the Exalted, rectified the affairs of His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, for He perfected his character with it, straightened his path with it, and nullified the void assertions with it. Hence, the statement, “And He protects...” was brought as a conclusion and confirmation of what preceded, and an insinuation regarding those who lack righteousness, [who are met] with abandonment and destruction. The meaning is: "My Protector, who sent down the Book—the well-known [Book] whose reality you know—protects the righteous and abandons others."

It is not hidden that what was mentioned first regarding the descriptive quality is more appropriate for the context, and its status as a concluding statement is beyond doubt. This verse is among those tested for constant recitation for protection against enemies; it was the daily litany of my father—may mercy be upon him—in the hours before dawn, as he was instructed to do so by one of the great masters in a dream.

The majority agree on placing a shadda on the first ya of waliyyi and giving a fatha to the second. It is also recited by eliding [the ya] in pronunciation due to its quiescence and the quiescence of what follows it; by giving a fatha to the first [without a shadda] and having no ya after it; and by eliding the second in pronunciation as a form of simplification.