Detailed Exegesis

Nation (umma): Umma has multiple meanings that trace back to one root. Sometimes umma is used in contrast to imām (leader), and at other times it refers to the collective of the imām and his followers. (386) What is intended here is umma in the sense of a community, which consists of the imām and his followers. Therefore, it does not refer to Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac individually and separately.

Passed away (khalat): From the root (khulūw), for which various meanings have been mentioned, such as: innocence, privacy, solitude, consolation, passing, abandonment, and others. None of these are the true meaning of this word. Khulūw means being free from duty and completing a task. The difference between it and farāgh (completion) is that farāgh occurs after creation. (387) Sometimes, in distinguishing between khalq (creation) and farāgh, it is said that khalq is separation from something, while farāgh from something can be accompanied by that thing; like being free from construction, which is accompanied by the building.(388) However, being free from construction in the sense of building is never combined with building in this sense, and what can be combined with it is building in the sense of the built structure, not the act of building.

Khalq sometimes means the emptying of time from what occupies it, or space from what occupies it, and sometimes it means passing and expiration. What is meant here is passing, but not in the sense of absolute disappearance or mere non-existence, because what is absolutely gone or non-existent never receives reward or punishment and will not benefit or be harmed. Therefore, the intended meaning is relative passing, not absolute passing, because death is an existential matter, like migration and transition, and no journey is absolute disappearance or mere non-existence, although it involves departure from a specific place. What is mentioned in the verse “And when they are alone with their devils”(389) is of this kind of relative passing, not absolute.

What (mā): The word “what” (mā) can be either a relative pronoun or a verbal noun particle, similar to what has been said about the verse “Man will have nothing but what he strives for”(390). Its function as a verbal noun particle can be inferred from the verse “And that his striving will be seen”(391), although there is also a possibility for it to be a relative pronoun. If it is a relative pronoun, the pronoun “it” is omitted in “earned it” (kasabat-hu) and “you have earned it” (kasabtumū-hu)(392).