Continuation of the commentary on al-Jalalayn's tafsir: “And they believe in Him” (Glorified and Exalted is He) with their insights, meaning they affirm His oneness. “And they seek forgiveness for those who believe”

He said: “

And they believe in Him

ويؤمنون به

(Glorified and Exalted is He) with their insights, meaning they affirm His oneness”. In language, faith is the affirmation of a thing, which is belief in it, but it is affirmation by the heart and tongue, not merely assent. A thing may not be presented to a person, yet he believes in it, as when he sees something with his own eyes; he believes in it even if it was not presented to him. The claim that faith in language means assent is questionable, because defining a thing by another thing requires that the definition correspond to the defined. It is well known that you say, “I believed in it,” and you say, “I assented to it”; you say, “I believed for him,” and you say, “I assented for him”; and you say, “I believed him,” but you do not say, “I assented him.” This indicates that faith is not assent. The Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) drew attention to this in his book *Al-Iman*, stating: “That faith means assent is not correct, even if it may occur in that sense, but its reality is that it is not that. Rather, it is affirmation by the heart and utterance by the tongue.” Thus, “they believe in Allah” means they believe in His existence (Mighty and Majestic), His oneness, and in all the names and attributes He deserves, and in other matters, with complete faith. Belief in Allah includes belief in His existence, His lordship, His divinity, His names and attributes, and His uniqueness in all of that.
It has passed us by repeatedly that forgiveness is covering the sin and passing over it. The phrase “Our Lord” is the content of a deleted statement, which the author explained by saying: “They say, ‘

Our Lord, You have encompassed all things

ربنا وسعت كل شيء

[Ghafir 40:7]

’”. “Our Lord” means “O our Lord,” and the vocative yā’ was omitted due to frequent usage and to seek blessing in beginning with the name of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) or with the attribute of Lordship. “Our Lord, Your mercy and knowledge encompass all things” means Your mercy encompasses all things and Your knowledge encompasses all things. So the meaning of “encompass all things” is that Your mercy surrounds it and Your knowledge surrounds it. Whatever Allah’s knowledge reaches, His mercy reaches. However, mercy is either general or specific, as will come in the benefits, if Allah wills.
And the phrase is an expression of seeking nearness to Allah, meaning: they sought nearness to Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) through the vastness of Allah’s knowledge and mercy to their request. He says: meaning they repented from associating partners with Allah and returned to Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) through the oneness of Allah and sincerity. meaning Your path, which is the religion of Islam, whether it is the Islam of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) or the Islam of those before him, because this supplication is general for all believers. So the author’s statement: “the religion of Islam” intends the general Islam. Those who followed the previous messengers are Muslims, and those who followed Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) are Muslims, but there is no Islam after Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) except by following his religion.
Here he said: And in another verse: so he attributed the path to the believers. Likewise, the Sirat (straight path) is sometimes attributed by Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) to Himself, such as His saying: and sometimes to the believers, such as: So how are these reconciled? The reconciliation is that Allah attributed the path or the Sirat to Himself in two respects: the first respect is that He is the One who established it for His servants to walk upon, and the second respect is that it leads to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), so whoever walks upon it, He will lead him to his Lord. As for its attribution to the believers in His saying: or to those upon whom He has bestowed favor in His saying: it is because they walked upon it, so it was attributed to them by virtue of their walking upon it. And thus, there is no contradiction between the verses. “Forgive and protect them from the punishment of the blazing Fire” means: make for them protection from the punishment of the blazing Fire, which is the punishment of the Fire, as the author explained by that.