[Be warned of] the Day when Allah will assemble the messengers and say, "What was the response you received?" They will say, "We have no knowledge. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen"
Al-Ma'idah: 109
**"The Day when Allah will gather..."**
"The Day when Allah will gather": This is a substitute (badal) for the accusative in His saying, "And fear Allah." It is a badal al-ishtimal (substitution of inclusion), as if it were said: "Fear Allah on the day of His gathering," or it is an adverbial phrase for His saying, "He does not guide," meaning: He does not guide them to the path of Paradise on that day, as He does with others. Alternatively, it is in the accusative due to the implied verb "Remember."
Or, "The Day when Allah will gather the messengers," [it was as if He said] such and such.
"What" (ma-dha): It is in the accusative, like the accusative of its verbal noun, meaning: "What kind of answer did you receive?" If the answer itself were intended, it would have been said: "With what (bi-ma) did you answer?"
If you ask: What is the meaning of their questioning?
I say: It is to rebuke their people, just as the questioning of the buried-alive girl was a rebuke to the one who buried her.
If you ask: How can they say, "We have no knowledge," when they have already been answered?
I say: They know that the purpose of the question is to rebuke their enemies. Therefore, they entrust the matter to His knowledge and His encompassing awareness of what they suffered from them and the hardship of their evil responses. This is to express their complaint and to seek refuge in their Lord for vengeance against them. This is more severe upon the disbelievers, more shattering to their resolve, and brings greater regret and helplessness upon them when the rebuke of Allah and the complaint of His prophets are combined against them.
An example of this is when a Kharijite inflicts a calamity upon a ruler—a calamity the ruler is already aware of, knows the extent of, and has resolved to avenge. The ruler brings them together and asks him, "What did this Kharijite do to you?" while he already knows what was done. He intends to rebuke and shame him. The person replies, "You are more knowing of what was done to me," entrusting the matter to the ruler's knowledge, relying upon him, expressing his grievance, and magnifying the harm he suffered.
It is also said: Due to the terror of that Day, they are frightened and forget the answer, then they answer after their intellects return to them, by testifying against their nations.
It is also said: The meaning is, "Our knowledge is eclipsed and submerged by Your knowledge, for You are the Knower of the Unseen."
He who knows the hidden things is not unaware of the manifest things, among which is the response of the nations to their messengers. It is as if they are saying, "We have no knowledge alongside Your knowledge."
It is also said: "We have no knowledge of what happened among them after us," for the judgment belongs to the final outcome.
How could their state be hidden from them when they have seen them with blackened faces and blue eyes, being rebuked?
"Knower of the Unseen" ('allam al-ghuyub) is read in the accusative, assuming the speech concluded with His saying, "Indeed, it is You."
Meaning: You are the One described with Your known attributes of knowledge and others. Then "Knower of the Unseen" is in the accusative as an appositive of specification (ikhtisas), or as a vocative, or it is an adjective for the noun of inna.
"When Allah said": A substitute for "The Day when He will gather."
The meaning is that He rebukes the disbelievers on that Day by asking the messengers about their response and by enumerating the great signs He manifested at their hands, yet they denied them and called them sorcerers.
Or they exceeded the limit of denial to the point of taking them as gods, as some of the Children of Israel said regarding the clear signs and miracles manifested at the hands of Jesus (peace be upon him): "This is clear magic," and some took him and his mother as two gods.
"I supported you" (ayyadtuka): I strengthened you. It is also read as ayyadtuka (on the pattern of af'alta).
"With the Holy Spirit": With the speech by which the religion is brought to life. It is attributed to "the Holy" (al-quds) because it is the cause of purity from the filth of sins.
The evidence for this is His saying, "You speak to the people" and "in the cradle."
"In the cradle" is in the position of a state (hal), meaning: You speak to them as an infant.
"And in maturity": Except that "in the cradle" provides evidence for a limit of infancy. It is said that the Holy Spirit is Gabriel (peace be upon him), with whom he was supported to establish the proof.
If you ask: What is the meaning of His saying, "In the cradle and in maturity"?
I say: It means you speak to them in these two states without your speech varying between the time of infancy and the time of maturity, which is the time of the perfection of the intellect, the reaching of full strength, and the limit at which prophets are commissioned.
"The Torah and the Gospel": They are singled out for mention from what the "Book and Wisdom" encompass, because the intent behind them is the genus of the Book and Wisdom.
It is said: "The Book" is writing, and "Wisdom" is the precise, correct speech.
"Like the form of a bird": A form like the form of a bird.
"By My permission": By My facilitation.
"Then you breathe into it": The pronoun refers to the "form" (hay'a), because it is the form that Jesus (peace be upon him) would create and breathe into. It does not refer to the form to which it is added, because that is not in his creation nor from his breathing into anything. The same applies to the pronoun in "then it becomes."
"You bring forth the dead": You bring them out of the graves and resurrect them.
It is said: He brought out Shem son of Noah, two men, a woman, and a slave girl.
"And when I restrained the Children of Israel from you": Meaning the Jews when they intended to kill him.
It is said: When Allah said to Jesus, "Remember My favor upon you," he used to wear hair, eat from trees, and store nothing for the next day, saying with every day comes its provision. He had no house to fall into ruin, nor a child to die. Wherever evening found him, he spent the night.
