Tafsir of Abasa 80:23

This is a rebuke to man regarding the state he is in of denying blessings, which has reached its ultimate end. His saying, the Almighty, "he has not fulfilled what He commanded him," is an explanation for the reason for the rebuke. Lamma is a jussive negative particle, and its negation is not discontinuous. Ma is a relative pronoun, and the pronoun in amara-hu (what He commanded him) refers either to man—like the concealed pronoun in yaqdi (he fulfills), where the referent returning to the relative pronoun is omitted (meaning: bihi [with it])—or it refers to the relative pronoun itself through omission and connection, while the referent returning to man is omitted (meaning: iyyahu [him]). It has been said that the second is better, because omitting the object is easier than omitting the referent returning to the relative pronoun.

The intent of "what He commanded him" is everything that He commanded him to do. The meaning, as stated by more than one scholar, is: from the beginning of the time of his obligation until the time of his being entrusted and buried, or from the time of Adam, peace be upon him, until this ultimate end—despite the length and extension of the duration—he has not fulfilled all that He commanded him; he has not carried out all of the commands of the Almighty, for no one is free from some shortcoming. This has been reported from Mujahid and Qatadah. In this, the failure to fulfill is interpreted as the negation of totality. This has been critiqued by the fact that there is no doubt that the context of the noble verses is to manifest the extremity of man's crime and to establish his excessive ingratitude, which necessitates great wrath. It is apparent that this is not realized through this measure of a type of shortcoming from which no individual among them is free.

It has been chosen that the failure to fulfill be interpreted as the totality of negation: either by the subject being man who is self-sufficient, or the genus [of man], but not absolutely. Rather, the truth of the judgment of "not fulfilling" applies to some of his individuals, and it is attributed to the whole, as in His saying, the Almighty: "Verily, man is indeed an oppressor, a disbeliever." Or, [it is chosen] that its truth applies to the whole qua whole by way of negating universal affirmation rather than universal negation. Thus, the meaning is: Not all of his individuals have fulfilled what He commanded them; rather, some have neglected it through disbelief and disobedience, even though the consequence of what He has done of various blessings encompassing everyone necessitates that no one should differ from Him.

Al-Hasan said: Kalla means "truly" (haqqan), so it connects to what follows it; meaning: Truly, he has not acted according to what He commanded him. Ibn Furak said: The pronoun in yaqdi refers to Allah, the Almighty—meaning: Allah, the Almighty, has not decreed for this disbeliever what He commanded him to do, namely faith, but rather commanded him as a way of establishing proof against him by that which He did not decree for him. Its remoteness is not hidden. The apparent view in this case is also that Kalla means "truly."