The Exegesis of the Saying of Allah the Exalted: “Allah has presented a parable of a man in whom are partners who dispute with one another, and a man who is free of any partner for a man. Are the two equal in parable? Praise be to Allah, but most of them do not know.”

Allah (Mighty and Majestic) explained this great parable and said: Read, O Ahmad, read... equal... meaning those who are in dispute and differ, each one of them saying, “I am his owner, I am the one who wants to use him,” and the like. So they are always in dispute and contention because each one of them wants to have him exclusively over the other. The second man, a man free of any partner for a man, free of any partner, meaning safe. So no one shares this man with him. If someone were to ask: How did you know that “free of any partner” means safe, safe from partners? We say: We knew that by the mention of the opposite, which is His saying: because a word is known by its context and the mention of the opposite. And among the examples, and the most prominent example of that, is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): If someone were to ask you: What is the meaning of “alone”? You would understand its meaning from what follows it, so “alone” is the opposite of “together,” meaning individually, they went out individually, or they went out all together. And these are the rules in exegesis: that the interpretation of a word is known by mentioning what is opposite to it. So here we say: a man free of any partner, free of any partner, meaning pure for the man, for his owner, no one shares him with him. If someone were to ask: How did you know that? We say: By what we mentioned of the rule, that the opposite of a thing, that which is made equivalent to it, is opposite to it in meaning. This man who was free of any partner for a man, does anyone share him? Does anyone share him in his ownership? No. Does anyone contest him? No. So it is obligatory for us to know the difference between the slave in whom are partners, the disputing partners, and the slave in whom are no partners. Then we apply this by analogy to the one who is sincere to Allah, who worships Allah alone, and the one who worships others along with Allah. And for this reason He said: meaning, are the two men equal, one in whom are disputing partners and the other free of any partner for a man? Are these two equal? The answer is: No. So the interrogative here is then in the meaning of negation, meaning they are not equal. And the interrogative comes for many meanings, as is known in the science of rhetoric, but when it comes in the place of negation, it is tinged with the meaning of challenge. It is tinged with the meaning of challenge, because if it were said, “They are not equal,” we would understand the negation of their equality. But He said, “Are they equal?” So these are two matters, two things:
The first matter: Is there? The negation of equality.
And the second matter: The challenge. He says, “Is there? Do you have anything that proves that they are equal?” So converting the negation into an interrogative is more eloquent in negation, and... The answer is: No. Allah the Exalted said: He praised Himself (Mighty and Majestic) for the perfection of His attributes and the perfection of His blessings. And among His blessings is that He presents parables for people in the Qur'an so that perhaps they will remember, even though He (Mighty and Majestic) is rich in respect of them. And whoever disbelieves, then indeed Allah is rich in respect of all the worlds. But His mercy forbids Him except to make clear to His servants what they need in matters of their religion and their worldly affairs. And for this reason He said, after this complete explanation of the parable, Then He said: Here “but” is for transition, and transition here has two meanings:
The first meaning: Transition of moving, moving from one thing to another.
And the second meaning: Transition of negation, which negates the first and establishes the second. So if I say, “Zayd did not stand, but 'Amr,” this is transition of negation; I negated the first and established the second. And in His saying (the Exalted): this is a transition from one meaning to a stronger meaning. In this verse, is it transition of negation or is it transition of moving?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Yes, it is transition of moving, because nothing preceded it that was negated. And Allah’s saying: The intended meaning of “most of them” here is most of the people, as that came in other verses, And the negation of knowledge here is due to the negation of its necessary consequence, which is action and obedience. So most of the people are in ignorance, and most of the people are in error. In ignorance, they do not know the truth, and in error, they do not know the truth and do not act upon it. And it is correct for us to negate knowledge for all of them. As for the one who is in ignorance, the negation of knowledge for him is clear. And as for the one who is in error, the negation of knowledge is because he did not benefit from it and did not act upon it.