Tafsir of Ar-Rum 30:6-7

{The promise of Allah} This is an emphatic verbal noun (maṣdar), similar to your saying: "I owe you a thousand dirhams, ‘urfan (as an acknowledgment)." Its meaning is: "I acknowledge it to you as an acknowledgment." Thus, "Allah promised that as a promise," because what preceded it carries the meaning of a promise.

{They know a manifest aspect of the worldly life} Allah, the Almighty and Exalted, censured them for being intelligent regarding worldly affairs while being heedless of religious matters. They were people of trade and profit. It is narrated from al-Hasan that one of them was so shrewd that he would take a dirham, tap it with his finger, and know whether it was base or genuine.

The phrase {they know} is a substitute (badal) for the phrase {they do not know}. In this substitution lies a subtle point: He replaced the latter with the former, placing it in its stead to teach you that there is no difference between the absence of knowledge—which is ignorance—and the presence of knowledge that does not transcend the worldly life.

His saying {a manifest aspect of the worldly life} implies that the world has an outer aspect and an inner reality. Its outer aspect is what the ignorant know: enjoying its ornaments and indulging in its pleasures. Its inner reality and truth is that it is a passage to the Hereafter, from which one should provision oneself for the next life through obedience and righteous deeds. The use of the indefinite form for "manifest aspect" (ẓāhiran) indicates that they know only one single aspect out of many manifest aspects.

Regarding the second {they} (hum): It is permissible for it to be a subject (mubtada’) whose predicate is {heedless} (ghāfilūn), with the whole sentence serving as the predicate for the first "they." Alternatively, it may be a repetition of the first, with "heedless" being the predicate of the first. In either case, mentioning it proclaims that they are the source, the abode, and the hallmark of heedlessness regarding the Hereafter—that it springs from them and returns to them.

{Have they not reflected within themselves? Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them except with truth and for a specified term. And indeed, many of the people are, in the meeting with their Lord, disbelievers.}