Al-AʿrāfThe Heights

Iblīs's argument — 'I am better than him; You created me from fire and created him from clay' — is the first instance of qiyās (analogy) used to oppose a command of Allah, and it is rejected because it contradicts an explicit text.

— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

'I will surely come to them from before them and behind them and on their right and on their left' (7:17) is read as the four directions from which Shayṭān approaches: doubt about the Hereafter, desire for this world, sins of the right (religion) and sins of the left (worldly matters) — a summary drawn from earlier commentators, not a fixed textual division.

— Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān

Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ's response upon falling — 'Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves' (7:23) — is contrasted by exegetes with Iblīs's refusal to admit fault; the difference between the two is precisely repentance.

— Ibn Kathīr

'Garment of taqwā' is explained by the salaf variously as good deeds, modesty, or fear of Allah that clothes a person's inward state as physical garments clothe the body — the best of the two kinds of covering named in 7:26.

— Ibn Kathīr

7:31–32 was revealed in part against Arabs of the Jāhiliyyah who circled the Kaʿbah unclothed and denied themselves good food as an act of asceticism; the āyah rejects both extremes — indecency and self-imposed deprivation of what Allah made lawful.

— Al-Qurṭubī

The repetition of the same opening phrase for each prophet — 'yā qawmi uʿbudū Allāh mā lakum min ilāhin ghayruh' — establishes that tawḥīd, not any secondary law, was the single unchanging message of every messenger.

— Ibn Kathīr

On 7:80–84, the sin of Lūṭ's people is described as unprecedented among the nations ('mā sabaqakum bihā min aḥadin min al-ʿālamīn'), and their punishment — a rain of stones and being overturned — is drawn from the fuller account in Sūrat Hūd and al-Ḥijr.

— Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

Shuʿayb's people are condemned specifically for cheating in weight and measure (7:85) — an economic sin placed on the same level as the others' major transgressions, showing that dishonesty in trade is treated with equal seriousness.

— Ibn Kathīr

The sorcerers' instant sujūd upon witnessing the truth (7:120) is cited as one of the clearest Qur'anic examples of sincere faith overturning a lifetime's worldly investment in a single moment, since they had come that morning hoping for Firʿawn's reward.

— Ibn Kathīr

Firʿawn's threat in 7:124 — cutting off hands and feet from opposite sides and crucifixion — is the same penalty later prescribed in the Qur'an for ḥirābah (waging war against society, 5:33), noted by commentators as an early instance of this form of punishment in Qur'anic narrative.

— Al-Qurṭubī

The covenant is understood by most exegetes as an actual event in which Allah extracted the offspring of Ādam and made each testify to His lordship, per the report in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2865 narrated through Abū Hurayrah; some scholars read it instead as a metaphor for the innate disposition (fiṭrah) placed in every human being — both readings are held by different exegetes, and neither should be presented as the sole view.

— Ibn Kathīr, on 7:172

Reports differ on who exactly stands upon al-Aʿrāf — some say those whose good and bad deeds are equal, others mention groups such as martyrs who fell short in some matter; al-Ṭabarī notes no single report is decisively established, so the identity is stated with appropriate caution.

— Al-Ṭabarī, on 7:46–49

'Take to forgiveness, enjoin what is right, and turn away from the ignorant' is described as one of the most comprehensive verses of good character in the Qur'an, reportedly commented on by the Prophet ﷺ's companions as covering how to deal with people in every difficult situation.

— Ibn Kathīr, on 7:199