leads to eternal perdition, then alludes with this verse to the light of everlasting happiness, pointing it out to them to increase their sense of loss at having missed that supreme bounty.
And having charged [the people] “O you people! Worship...”, although this means hardship and difficulty and giving up immediate pleasures, it flings open to them the doors of postponed [future pleasures]. With this verse it satisfies and assures their souls.
And having proved divine unity, the principal pillar of belief and chief [religious] obligation, with this verse it announces the fruits of divine unity, the title-page of mercy and preface of divine pleasure by pointing out Paradise and eternal happiness.
And having proved prophethood, the second pillar of belief, through the miraculousness of the verse “And if you are in doubt...,”(2:23) with this verse and indirectly with the previous one, it alludes to the duties and obligations of prophethood, which are to warn and deliver good news through the tongue of the Qur’an.
And having threatened, intimidated, and warned in the previous verse, through the mystery of the relation between opposites, in this one it promises, excites desire, and gives good tidings.
Also, if a person is to make the souls [of others] submit and persist in obedience and make [their] consciences obey the dictates of reason, he will have to excite both the sense of fear and sense of longing by bringing together [the obligations] of frightening [away from wrong] and attracting [to right] (tarhīb wa targhīb). For the dictates of the intellect are only temporarily [effective], and there has to be in the conscience a permanent motivation and compelling incentive.
Moreover, having indicated one part of the hereafter with the previous verse, so with this one it indicates the other, which is the spring of eternal happiness. Similarly, there it alludes with fire to Hell, and here it explicitly mentions Paradise.
Now understand that Paradise and Hell are two fruits which point to eternity from the tree of creation, and are the two results of the chain of the universe. They are two storage tanks into which the universe is poured, and two pools for it as it flows into eternity. Yes, the universe will be convulsed and shaken up with a violent motion, and Paradise and Hell will appear and will fill up [with the appropriate matters].
An Elucidation of This: When Allah (May His glory be exalted) willed the creation of a world for examination and trial, for numerous instances of