From whatever place you issue, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque;] and wherever you may be, O believers, turn your faces [towards it], to the side of the breast witnessing your witnessings in it, paying attention to it and not turning away from it in any state, so that there be not against you, from the people, any argument, any authoritativeness by [the possibility] that they might seem weighty in your eyes, or that you should take them into consideration [unduly] during your absence from the truth, or because of their feigning superiority over you; or [it means] [lest there be] any overpowering [by them of you] through words or deeds with respect to what you are seeking and demanding, for you will be upon the truth in [seeking] these then; nay, let them submit and yield to you: for verily the party of God, they are the victors [Q. 5:56]; excepting [illā] the evildoers among them, namely, the disbelievers, those who have been driven away, who have veiled themselves from the truth absolutely, for they are contemptuous of you, neither submitting nor yielding because of their failure absolutely to act upon the truth. The specious claim which they attempt to present as being [a valid] argument and their objection to the Muslims in both word and deed, and their haughtiness towards them in their souls, He has called an 'argument' [but only] figuratively; a variant reading has alā [instead of illā] as an [interjectory] alert so that a new sentence begins with the evildoers [among them]: do not fear them, because they cannot overpower you or harm you, but fear Me, be in awe of My Grandeur self-disclosing itself, lest they acquire standing in your hearts and eyes, and lest your breasts incline and so you incline to agree with them in reverence and exaltation of them by virtue of your being in absence and [ensconced] in the soul, as the commander of the believers [ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib], peace be upon him, said: '[If you] extol the Creator in yourself, [His] creatures shall seem insignificant in your eyes'; [and that I may perfect My grace upon you, and that you may be guided]: [fear Me] because of My having completed the grace of perfection for you and because of My desire for you to be guided I have commanded you to be constantly present and self-examining.
