Exegesis of the verse: ((If they argue with you, say: I have submitted my face to Allah, and those who follow me...)).

Then Allah the Exalted said: The address is to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and the pronoun of the absent refers to those who argued with you. Is the conjunction "wa" (and) for the Jews, or the Christians, or the polytheists, or the general public? There are three opinions: It was said for the Jews; it was said for the Christians because the verses at the beginning of Surat al-Imran were all revealed concerning the Christians; and it was said for the polytheists because they used to argue with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). They said to him: "You, O Muhammad, claim that those who invoke anyone other than Allah, both they and the one they invoke, will be from the Fire So Jesus is in the Fire because he is worshipped besides Allah. This is an argument, so Allah revealed immediately after the verse: So the important point is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is argued with; the polytheists argue with him, the Jews argue with him, and the Christians argue with him. But Allah Mighty and Majestic says: If they argue with you, say to them a word by which you will be saved from them: And when a person submits his face to Allah, he accepts everything Allah informs him of, complies with everything He commands, and refrains from everything He forbids, because he has submitted his face to Allah. The meaning of "face" here is not the facial organ on the head, but rather the intention, as the poet said:
To the Lord of the servants, the face and the work are directed.
You intend for your face, meaning the face which is the face of the heart, you submit it to Allah. And perhaps we can say: it includes both this and that, because when a person submits his face to Allah, you find him placing his face, which is the noblest of his organs, on the dust in humility and submission to Allah, is that not so? If the greatest king of the world said to you: "Prostrate, even if it is on a bed," you would say: "No, neither hearing nor obedience, I will not prostrate to you." But the Lord Mighty and Majestic commands you to prostrate to Him, so you prostrate on the earth and on the dust, this is submission to Allah the Exalted, submission to the Face of Allah. Now, if I said: What follows from this? Do you not get saved from them? The answer is: Yes, because it entails believing in the news of Allah. And what else, O Ghanim? What else follows from it? The second is: complying with His command and avoiding His prohibition. So I am now following this method, and from that I was commanded to convey to you, and I have conveyed it, and there is nothing more for me than that And by this we know the aspect of the answer's conformity to what? To the condition. Otherwise, a person might expect a different answer; they might expect it to be said: "If they argue with you, argue with them." They might expect this, but it was said: "If they argue with you, say: I have submitted my face to Allah and those who follow me, and I have believed in Him and submitted to His commands. And among that is that I convey to you, and I have done so. If you are guided, it is for your own souls; and if you persist, it is upon you." And His saying: Who is this "man" (who) conjoined to what? To and to the "ta" (I). This "ta" is the pronoun in "I submitted," by way of abbreviation. So it is conjoined to the pronoun in And it is not permissible for it to be conjoined to the Name of Glory, is it not? Because the Messenger does not submit to those who follow him; rather, he submits his face to Allah. And similar to that is His saying the Exalted: It is as if those who said that "he who follows you from among the believers" is conjoined to the Name of Glory relied on His saying the Exalted: But there is a great difference between them, why? Because "Your hands" means: To whom is the support attributed? To Allah. And He made the victory and the believers a means, so the one who supports is Allah. So there is an apparent difference between that and His saying: In any case, His saying: is conjoined to the "ta" in meaning to the pronoun. And His saying: has two readings: one reading: sukun (stillness) on the ya, and one reading: fath (opening) on the ya. The second: As for the haa, it is kasrah (broken). What is difficult about this: How can it be conjoined to what is in the position of nominative case, which is the "ta," and then be broken? So the dammah (nominative marker) is implied on what precedes the ya of the speaker, because the position is occupied by the movement of correspondence, because the ya cannot correspond to anything other than kasrah; it is not possible to break what precedes it for its sake. So we say: the position is occupied by a corresponding movement, which is kasrah. And His saying: "Followed me" is based on what? On what I brought of creed, speech, and action. And the sign of the one who truly follows the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is the one who, when it is said to him: "The Messenger of Allah said," it becomes like the saying to one: "Allah said." And when it is said to him: "The Messenger of Allah did," he does not prefer the action of any person over his action. This is the reality of the follower. As for the one who says something, or does something, or believes something, and then tries to divert the speech of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to it, this is truly not a follower, why? Because he did not submit to what the Messenger brought; rather, he followed his desire, and then tried to twist the necks of the texts to what agrees with his desire. And this is a serious matter. Therefore, when you read sometimes in the books of scholars in the chapter of discussion, you wonder how they build their evidence for their beliefs on what they believe of rulings or of heart beliefs, and they try to divert these texts to what they believe. And you are proud of this matter from them, and they are eminent scholars. And this profession is not safe from except whom Allah protects. We ask Allah to protect me and you from it. It is a great profession to make guidance a follower of desire, and the obligatory is that desire be a follower of guidance.