Tafsir of Al-A'la 87:6

This is an elucidation of His (Exalted is His Majesty) special guidance toward His Messenger (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him), following the elucidation of His (Mighty and Majestic is He) general guidance toward all His creatures. This pertains to his (peace and blessings be upon him) guidance in receiving revelation and memorizing the Quran—which is guidance for the worlds—and His granting him success in guiding all of humanity.

The sin (in sanuqri’uka) is either for emphasis or because the intention is to recite what was revealed to him at that time and what would be revealed to him thereafter. It is a noble promise of the continuity of revelation, contained within the promise of recitation. Attributing the act of recitation to Him (Exalted is He) is metaphorical; it means: "We shall make you recite what We reveal to you now and in the future through the tongue of Gabriel (peace be upon him)," for he is the intermediary in revelation in all its modes.

"So you will not forget" at all, by virtue of the strength of memory and precision, even though you were unlettered and did not know what the Book was nor how to read, so that this might be a sign for you, alongside the clear verses contained within what you recite, both in terms of their miraculous nature and their reports of the unseen.

It has been suggested that the meaning is: "We shall make you a reader by inspiring you to read"—that is, from a written text without the instruction of anyone, contrary to custom. It has been narrated from Ja’far al-Sadiq (may Allah be pleased with him) that he (peace and blessings be upon him) would read writing but would not write. In this interpretation, the intent of His saying (Exalted is He) "so you will not forget" is an absolute negation of forgetting regarding him (peace and blessings be upon him), and a favor bestowed upon him that he was granted the power of memory. However, besides being contrary to what has been transmitted from the predecessors regarding this verse, the fa (the 'so' of consequence) rejects this interpretation.

It has also been suggested that the intent is the negation of forgetting the content; meaning: "We shall make you recite the Quran, so do not neglect it and thereby oppose it in your deeds." This contains a promise of granting him success in adhering to the rulings contained within it, though this is as you can see [i.e., less likely].

It is also said that "so you will not forget" (fala tansa) is a prohibition, and the alif is for the sake of conforming to the verse-ending (rhyme), as in the saying of the Exalted: wa adalluna al-sabila (and they misled us the way). The objection to this is that forgetting is not a matter of choice, and therefore it cannot be prohibited unless it is meant metaphorically: the abandonment of its voluntary causes, or the abandonment of acting upon what the recited content entails. This involves unnecessary forced interpretation (takalluf) without cause. Furthermore, its orthography with the ya suggests it is part of the structure, not for the sake of absolute elongation (itlaq), and asserting that the script of the Mushaf contradicts [the rule] is also a forced interpretation.

Indeed, it is said that the alif of absolute elongation was written as a ya to conform with other verse-endings and to match its root, although Imam al-Marzuqi explicitly stated that when the alif of elongation is used, the elided letter returns. It is also said that it is a prohibition, but the alif was not elided, as the jussive particle does not always elide the vowel letter; this was done here to observe the verse-ending—though this too is subject to debate. The easiest position for the seeker is to say that it is a declarative statement intended as a prohibition, based on one of the two interpretations previously mentioned.