After recounting these judgments, the sūrah names the truth in which God created the world: وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمٰوَاتِ وَالْاَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَٓا اِلَّا بِالْحَقِّۜ. The heavens, the earth, and everything between them were created with truth and wisdom. The wrongs just recounted do not pass without answer, and the coming Hour will bring final judgment. Al-Dukhān likewise denies that creation is play and follows its affirmation of truth with the appointed Day of Decision.

The coming Hour immediately grounds a command that might otherwise seem surprising: وَاِنَّ السَّاعَةَ لَاٰتِيَةٌ فَاصْفَحِ الصَّفْحَ الْجَم۪يلَ. Because the Hour is surely coming, pardon with a beautiful pardon. The Prophet can pass over injury because judgment has not been lost; it belongs to God and is coming. He is to overlook their offense without reproach, entrusting their reckoning to his Lord. This gracious restraint does not silence the truth: the same close will command clear warning and open proclamation. Elsewhere the Qur’an similarly joins pardon and peace to the assurance that the rejecters will know.

The assurance is grounded in who his Lord is: اِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ الْخَلَّاقُ الْعَل۪يمُ. He is the consummate Creator, the Knowing. The same pair answers the denial of resurrection elsewhere: the One who created the heavens and earth can create again, for He is the Creator, the Knowing. Here the title also carries intimate consolation. The Lord who knows the purpose of the whole creation will soon say that He knows the constriction within His Messenger’s breast. His knowledge encompasses both the created order and the distress of His Messenger.

Before the Prophet is told where not to direct his longing, he is reminded of what he has already received: وَلَقَدْ اٰتَيْنَاكَ سَبْعًا مِنَ الْمَثَان۪ي وَالْقُرْاٰنَ الْعَظ۪يمَ. The seven oft-repeated verses are Al-Fātiḥah, recited again and again in prayer. Al-Fātiḥah is singled out, and the great Qur’an is named beside it. Al-Fātiḥah repeatedly brings the worshipper before the Lord of all worlds in praise, dependence, and the request for guidance; the Book unfolds that guidance. The Reminder God has promised to preserve is a gift greater than the worldly enjoyments set beside it in the next ayah.

Therefore: لَا تَمُدَّنَّ عَيْنَيْكَ اِلٰى مَا مَتَّعْنَا بِه۪ٓ اَزْوَاجًا مِنْهُمْ. Do not stretch your eyes toward what We have allowed groups among them to enjoy. The command distinguishes seeing their possessions from looking toward them with longing. At the sūrah’s opening, the Prophet was told to leave them to eat and enjoy beneath their distracting hope and known term. At its close, their visible prosperity is set against the greater gift he has received. The corresponding command in Ṭā Hā calls their display the flower of worldly life and a test, then declares the Lord’s provision better and more enduring. Their wealth is visible; its visibility does not make it the better portion.

The rest of the ayah turns from the rejecters to the believers: وَلَا تَحْزَنْ عَلَيْهِمْ وَاخْفِضْ جَنَاحَكَ لِلْمُؤْمِن۪ينَ. He is not to be consumed by grief over those who refuse, but he is to lower his wing toward the believers. The image gathers gentleness, shelter, nearness, and humility. The Qur’an joins this same wing-lowering to warning, reliance upon God, and movement among the prostrators. Firm warning and tenderness toward believers are not opposite prophetic qualities. They belong to one obedience.

Then the Prophet must name his office without ambiguity: وَقُلْ اِنّ۪ٓي اَنَا النَّذ۪يرُ الْمُب۪ينُۚ. Say: I am indeed the clear warner. He makes plain the punishment that refusal of God’s message brings. The clear Qur’an named at the opening now gives its bearer the words in which to announce his task. The gift entrusted to him is to be proclaimed, even among those who would rather mock its bearer than heed its warning.

The comparison in كَمَٓا اَنْزَلْنَا عَلَى الْمُقْتَسِم۪ينَۙ looks back to the gift of revelation: the Qur’an has been given to the Prophet just as earlier Books were sent down to the People of the Book. Yet among those recipients are the dividers, اَلَّذ۪ينَ جَعَلُوا الْقُرْاٰنَ عِض۪ينَ—those who made the Qur’an into pieces. They accept portions they judge to agree with their own scriptures and reject the rest. Their prior reception of revelation should have led them to recognize its source, not to reserve the right to approve or discard what comes from Him. Elsewhere the Qur’an condemns believing in part of a Book while rejecting another part, and seeking to divide between God and His messengers. The great Qur’an is whole as given; fragmentation enters through this selective reception.

Their division is answered by an oath of total accountability: فَوَرَبِّكَ لَنَسْـَٔلَنَّهُمْ اَجْمَع۪ينَۙ—by your Lord, We will surely question them all—عَمَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ, about what they had been doing. Their treatment of revelation is among the deeds for which they must answer. None of those who accept and reject its portions at will escapes this reckoning.

The answer to partitioned reception is not a partitioned proclamation: فَاصْدَعْ بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ وَاَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِك۪ينَ. Proclaim openly what you are commanded, and turn away from the associators. The content remains under command, not under the audience’s approval. Hūd likewise places the distress of facing demands for treasure or an angel beside the insistence that none of the revelation be withheld: the Messenger’s task is to warn, while God has charge of everything. Here, too, turning away cannot mean hiding the message. The Prophet must speak what God commands without letting the opponents’ mockery set the terms of his proclamation.

The burden of overcoming the mockers is then removed from him: اِنَّا كَفَيْنَاكَ الْمُسْتَهْزِء۪ينَۙ. We have protected you against the mockers. God breaks their power and defeats their schemes against His Messenger. Near the opening, every messenger among former peoples was mocked; God now addresses the bearer of the preserved Reminder with His own assurance. The command to proclaim stands beside the promise of protection. The wider Qur’an gives the same assurance against those who refuse faith in all the messengers: God is sufficient for His servant against them.

The mockers are identified by the allegiance beneath their mockery: اَلَّذ۪ينَ يَجْعَلُونَ مَعَ اللّٰهِ اِلٰهًا اٰخَرَۚ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ. They set another deity alongside God, and they will come to know. Their offense reaches beyond ridicule of His Messenger to association with God Himself. Then the opening refrain returns. Those left to eat, enjoy, and be distracted by hope were told, فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ; those who mock and associate are told the same. The histories between these two warnings have shown what their deferred knowledge will confront.

After the commands to pardon, warn, proclaim, and turn away, God names what the opposition is doing inside the Prophet: وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ اَنَّكَ يَض۪يقُ صَدْرُكَ بِمَا يَقُولُونَۙ. We certainly know that your breast constricts because of what they say. The assurance of protection stands beside acknowledgment of real hurt. The Reminder is preserved, yet its human bearer feels the weight of their speech within his chest. Elsewhere, too, commands not to grieve over hostile opposition stand beside God’s assurance that He knows what the opponents say. The Knowing Creator knows the inward cost of carrying His word.

To the servant whose distress He knows, God gives a way of seeking relief: فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ. Glorify your Lord with praise. The Messenger is directed toward God in the midst of what hurts him, finding help in remembrance and worship. Their words press upon his breast; his own speech turns toward his Lord in praise. Elsewhere the Qur’an joins the same commands: endure what they say and glorify with the praise of the Lord. The opponents’ speech is not to become the measure of his own.

Praise is joined to prayer: وَكُنْ مِنَ السَّاجِد۪ينَۙ. Be among the prostrators. Earlier, Iblīs اَبٰٓى اَنْ يَكُونَ مَعَ السَّاجِد۪ينَ—refused to be with the prostrators when God commanded them to bow before Adam. Here the Prophet is commanded to persevere in prostration before his Lord. The acts differ, but both passages ask whether the servant will obey God. Pride led Iblīs to refuse; the Messenger’s distress is to be met through continuing worship, not withdrawal from it. Al-Shuʿarāʾ adds the consolation that God sees him when he rises and sees his movement among the prostrators. The Lord who knows his hurt also sees his prayer.

The final command extends worship across the whole remaining life: وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتّٰى يَأْتِيَكَ الْيَق۪ينُ. Worship your Lord until certainty comes to you. Certainty here is death, whose arrival is sure for every living person. In the confession of the people of Saqar, the same expression marks the end of a life spent neglecting prayer and denying the Day of Judgment. Here it marks the limit of lifelong worship: the Messenger is to continue serving his Lord for as long as he lives. At the beginning of the sūrah, the rejecters will wish that they had been Muslims; at its end, the Prophet is directed to persevere in the worship whose value they will recognize too late.