Tafsir of Al-Mulk 67:1-4

{تبارك}: He is exalted and magnified above the attributes of created beings.

{الذي بيده الملك}: Sovereignty over every existing thing.

{وهو على كل}: Whatever does not yet exist but falls under His power, {قدير}: He is All-Powerful. Mentioning the "hand" is a metaphor for encompassing sovereignty and mastery over it.

Life: That by whose existence sensation is possible. It is also said: that which necessitates a thing being alive, enabling it to know and possess power.

Death: The absence of this in a thing. The meaning of "creating death and life" is the bringing into existence of this capacity and its removal. The meaning is: He created your death and your life, O you who are tasked with religious obligations, {ليبلوكم} (that He may test you). He named the knowledge of what occurs from them by their own choice a "trial" (balwa), which is experience, borrowed from the act of a tester. Similar to His saying: “And We will surely test you until We make evident those who strive among you” (Muhammad: 31).

If you ask: How does the phrase {أيكم أحسن عملا} (which of you is best in deed) relate to the act of testing? I reply: It contains the meaning of knowledge. It is as if it were said: "to know which of you is best in deed." When you say, "I tested him to see if Zayd is better in deed or he," this clause occupies the position of the second object, just as you say, "I knew him to be better in deed."

If you ask: Is this called ta'liq (suspension)? I reply: No. Ta'liq is when you place after the verb something that occupies the place of both objects, such as "I knew which of them is 'Amr" or "I knew whether Zayd is departing." Note that once one object has preceded, there is no difference between what follows being introduced by an interrogative particle or not. If it were ta'liq, the two states would differ, as they do in "I knew Zayd is departing" versus "I knew Zayd to be departing."

{أحسن عملا}: It is said: the most sincere and the most correct. For if it is sincere but not correct, it is not accepted; and if it is correct but not sincere, it is not accepted. Sincere means it is for the sake of Allah; correct means it is in accordance with the Sunnah. The Prophet (ﷺ) recited this, and when he reached “which of you is best in deed,” he said: "Which of you is best in intellect, most abstinent from the prohibitions of Allah, and swiftest in the obedience of Allah."

He means: Who among you has the most perfect intellect regarding Allah and understanding of His purposes? The intent is that He gave you life through which you are able to act and are empowered to do so, and He subjected you to death, which calls you to choose good deeds over evil ones, because behind it is the Resurrection and the Reckoning, which is inevitable. Death is mentioned before life because the strongest motivation for a person to act is to keep death before their eyes.

{وهو العزيز}: The Overpowering, whom no one who does evil can frustrate. {الغفور}: To those among the evildoers who repent.

{طباقا}: Layered, one above the other. Derived from tabaqa al-na'l (he patched the sandal), meaning he placed one layer upon another. This is a description using the verbal noun (masdar).

{من تفاوت}: (Also read as tafut). Both forms mean the same thing: discrepancy, disturbance in creation, or contradiction. It is level and straight. The reality of tafawut is the lack of proportion, as if one part of a thing misses another and does not fit it.

If you ask: What is the position of this sentence relative to what precedes it? I reply: It is an adjective describing {طباقا}. Its origin is "what you see in them of discrepancy." He replaced the pronoun with {خلق الرحمان} (the creation of the Most Merciful) to magnify their creation and to alert one to the reason for their freedom from discrepancy: that it is the creation of the Most Merciful, and that by His overwhelming power, He is the One who creates such proportionate creation. The address in "you see" is to the Messenger or to any person addressed.

{فارجع البصر}: This is connected to the preceding as a consequence. He informed him that there is no discrepancy in their creation, then said: "Return your gaze" so that what you have been told becomes certain to you through direct observation, leaving no doubt.

{هل ترى من فطور}: Any cracks or fissures. Futur is the plural of fatr, which is a crack. It is said: fatara-hu (he cracked it), so it cracked (infatara).

He commands him to repeat his gaze, examining and tracking them, seeking a flaw or defect. {ينقلب إليك}: If you return your gaze and repeat your looking, your sight will not return to you having found the flaw or perceived the defect. Rather, it will return to you khasi'an (humbled/driven away) and hasiran (fatigued)—meaning far from attaining what was sought, as if it were driven away by insignificance and smallness, and by exhaustion and weariness from the length of the search.

If you ask: How can the sight return humbled and fatigued by returning it twice? I reply: The dual form here signifies frequent repetition, like saying labbayka wa sa'dayka (I am at your service repeatedly).

If you ask: What is the meaning of "then return" (*thumma irji')? I reply: He commanded him to return his gaze, then commanded him not to be satisfied with the first return or a foolish glance, but to pause, let his sight rest, then repeat and repeat, until his sight is fatigued from the length of the repetition, for he will not stumble upon any crack.