Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Say: I only advise you of one thing: that you stand for Allah in pairs and individually...”

Then Allah the Exalted said: Look at the fairness, the fairness of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in addressing the creation, meaning, O Muhammad, directing the address to these deniers. This sentence contains restriction, and its estimation is: I do not advise you except with one thing, meaning I do not call you with the call of an advisor and one who gives you counsel except with one thing only. So here includes the meaning of “I advise you,” meaning I call you, being a counselor and advisor to you, to this single trait. He said: “It is that you stand” So on this basis, “that you stand” is in the position of the genitive as an explanatory apposition to his saying: meaning he specified this one thing by his saying: to the end of it. Here, the intended meaning is that you remain steadfast upon the matter, and the intended meaning is not standing as the opposite of sitting. It is like His saying, the Exalted: [An-Nisa: 127] The intended meaning is not that you stand for the orphans, that one person stands, and so on. The intended meaning is not that you stand in a standing position, but that you remain steadfast and consider the matter. And his saying: The author said: “Meaning for His sake” So the lam here is for sincerity, meaning that you stand sincere for Allah, not imitating your fathers, and not being biased toward your opinions. Purify your intentions of everything except for Allah. That you stand for Allah alone, not for me, not out of consideration for me, not out of consideration for your fathers, and not out of tribal loyalty, but for Allah. The author said: “In pairs, in pairs” Is the intended meaning the actuality of pairing? Meaning that they stand as two, two? Or is the intended meaning merely the increase over one? Meaning that it is paired? Rather, the intended meaning is the actuality of two. It is not intended to be the actuality of two, but the intended meaning is that you stand for Allah gathered together, whether you are two, or three, or four, or five, or ten. Yes, this is the apparent meaning. And some of the exegetes said that the intended meaning of “in pairs” here is the actuality of two, and they reasoned this by saying that when people increase in number, their opinions become confused, and quarreling increases among them, and the objective is missed. Because if you now put forward an opinion among ten people, how many opinions will come to you? Ten opinions. And among two people, two opinions come to you. They said: “So two is closer to restriction and closer to visualizing the issue than if they were more than two. But it can be said that this is the actuality, but sometimes three or four are more sound in opinion than just two. So the verse is to be understood as meaning that the intended meaning of “in pairs” is gathering in general, whether they are two or more. And “in pairs” can be intended to mean gathering in general, as in His saying:

So return [your] vision [to the sky]; do you see any breaks? ⁽⁴⁾ Then return [your] vision twice again.

فَارْجِعِ الْبَصَرَ هَلْ تَرَى مِنْ فُطُورٍ * ثُمَّ ارْجِعِ الْبَصَرَ كَرَّتَيْنِ يَنقَلِبْ

[Al-Mulk 3:4] meaning round after round, and the intended meaning is not the actuality of two. And like the saying of the two who are responding to the call for Hajj or 'Umrah, saying: “ Labbaik,” meaning a response to you twice, or is the intended meaning a response after a response, even if it is many? The latter. Yes, and Allah knows best.