‘Abasa: (4) Or that he may receive admonition, so that the admonition might profit him.

"Or that he may receive admonition" means: that he may take heed, "so that the admonition might profit him," meaning: your reminder and your exhortation. The meaning is that you do not know what is expected of him, whether it be abandonment [of disbelief] or taking heed; if you had known, what occurred would not have occurred. The purpose is to negate the knowledge that he would be purified or reminded. The expectation (tarajjî) refers back to the blind man, or to the Prophet (may Allah exalt him and grant him peace), according to what has been said, as an indication that the expectation of purification, or [the fact] that he is someone from whom such is expected, is sufficient for refraining from frowning and turning away. How much more so when his desire was verified!

Since his right was minimized in the attachment of expectation to him—rather than certainty—the object of "purification" (al-tazzakî) was considered in terms of certain impurities, as a reinforcing of that. In this is the manifestation of what the station of majesty requires here by using the term tazzakî (purification) in a general sense, applying it to whatever the name applies to, rather than [the state of] perfection. Some have said that the object of "knowledge" (al-dirâya) is omitted—meaning: what informs you of his affair and the consequence of his state, or what allows you to perceive that? The statement of the Exalted, "Perhaps he may..." is an incipit (isti'nâf) introduced to explain what the previous [verse] hints at; for while it suggests that he possesses a status incompatible with turning away from him—a status beyond the knowledge and perception of others—it also implies that He, the Exalted, knows that of him.

Some have considered "purification" in terms of perfection, saying: "Perhaps he may be purified entirely from the impurities of sin by what he acquires from you, or be reminded, so that your exhortation might profit him, if he does not reach the degree of complete purification." Perhaps the first is more profound in significance. Purification was placed before admonition because takhliya (emptying oneself of vice) precedes tahliya (adorning oneself with virtue). Some have restricted the first to when what is being learned consists of supererogatory matters, and the second to when it is other than that, and this is as you see.

In the verse, there is an allusion and an indication that those among the disbelievers whom the Prophet (may Allah exalt him and grant him peace) undertook to purify and remind, no purification is expected from them at all. Thus, it is like your saying to someone who is explaining a matter to someone who does not understand it, while having another present who is capable of understanding it: "Perhaps this one will understand what is being explained," for it implies that he intended to make someone understand who is not worthy of what he intended. It is said that the allusion arose from the fact that the one being spoken about was already purified of sins and was taking heed. It is also said that the pronoun in "perhaps" refers to the disbeliever, and the expectation refers to the Messenger (may Allah exalt him and grant him peace), meaning: "You coveted his purification through Islam and his being reminded through exhortation, and for that reason, you turned away from the other. What makes you know that what you coveted will come to pass?" This is weakened by the fact that the disbeliever had not been previously mentioned, and by the singular form of the pronoun, whereas the apparent meaning is plural—based on the famous view that those whom he (upon him be peace) was occupied with were a group, although it came in some narrations that it was one [person].

Al-A'raj and 'Asim, in one narration, read aw yadhakkar (or that he may receive admonition) with a vowelless dhal and a damma on the kaf. The majority read fatanfa'ahu (so that it may profit him) in the nominative case (raf'), as a conjunction to yadhakkar. 'Asim, in the famous narration, Al-A'raj, Abu Haywa, Ibn Abi 'Abla, and Al-Za'farani read it in the accusative case (nasb). In the view of the Basrans, this is due to the implication of an (to) after the fa', and in the view of the Kufans, it is in the response to an expectation (tarajjî), which is like a wish (tamannî) in their view, requiring the accusative in its response. In al-Kashshaf, it states that the accusative supports the reference of the pronoun in "perhaps" to the disbeliever, rather than the "expectation" having the sense of a wish, due to the distance of the hoped-for object from being attained—that is, when considering the totality, since it was attained by the blind man. Upon the previous [view], its aspect [is] the reinforcement of the meaning of minimization, then reminding.