The Exegesis of the Saying of Allah the Exalted: "By it, Allah guides those who follow His pleasure to the paths of peace, and He brings them out of the darknesses into the light, for He is the Mighty, the Wise, and He guides them to the straight path"

The preposition "ba" here indicates causality. As for the guidance here, if the intended meaning of "by it" is by its indication, then the guidance here is guidance by indication. And if the intended meaning is by His saying: "by it" in , meaning by following it, then the guidance is guidance of success and indication as well. We look at the rest of the context: "man" (whoever) is the first object, "subul" (paths) is the second object, and "ridwan" (pleasure) is the object of the verb "ittaba'a" (followed). So the One who guides is the source of pleasure, and that to which they are guided is the paths of peace. Meaning, he sought it and desired it, and he saw what pleases Allah, so he acted upon it. And He did not say: "the path of peace," even though the common expression is that the path of Islam is expressed in the singular and the paths of misguidance in the plural. But here, when He said: , it became necessary that the intended meaning of "paths" here is the legislations of Islam. That is, if one follows the pleasure of Allah, he has been guided, submitted to Islam, and believed. But Islam has legislations, it has paths, so for this reason He said: . The attribution of the paths to peace is from the category of attributing a thing to its cause, meaning the paths by which peace is attained. Peace from what? Peace from the Fire, peace from deviation, peace from doubts. That is, mention every meaning that the word "peace" can bear. . "Yukhrijuhum" (He brings them out) means Allah the Mighty and Majestic. And the intended meaning of His saying: , and the pronoun returned to "man" (whoever) in the plural form to accommodate its meaning, because "man" (whoever) is singular in form but its meaning may intend the plural, so it is correct for the pronoun to return to it in the plural. And this is the rule for "man," whether it is a relative pronoun or a conditional pronoun: it is permissible to return the pronoun to it in the plural considering the meaning, and in the singular considering the form. And look at His saying the Exalted: , you will find that Allah the Exalted returned the pronoun to it once in the plural form and once in the singular form, and returned it a second time in the singular form, singular, singular, plural, singular. This is the rule: the word "man" (whoever), whether it is a relative or a conditional, it is permissible for the pronoun to return to it in the singular and for it to return to it in the plural, accommodating the form and the meaning. When is the form intended? When it returns in the singular. And the meaning when it returns in the plural.