And vie with one another hastening to forgiveness from your Lord and to a garden as wide as the heavens and the earth that has been prepared for those who fear. Who expend in prosperity and adversity and restrain their rage and pardon their fellow men; and God loves those who are virtuous. The meaning here is vie with one another hastening to act in ways that will bring about forgiveness for you. The hearts [of the believers] were overwhelmed imagining that this was a difficult matter so [the Prophet] ﷺ said “Remorse is repentance” al-nadmu tawba. Nothing but repentance brings about forgiveness because the one who disobeys is the one who is in need of it. The people who vie with one another are of several types. Those who are worshipers ʿābidūn vie with one another by their feet in acts of obedience bi-qadamihim fī l-Ṭāʿāt. Those who have deeper knowledge ʿārifūn vie with one another with their aspirations in acts of drawing near bi-himam- ihim fī l-qurubāt. Those who are disobedient ʿāṣūn vie with one another with their remorse by swallowing their grief bi-nadamihim bi-tajarruʿi al-ḥasarāt. Whoever vies with others by his feet finds [God's] recompense wajada mathwabatahu. Whoever vies with others with his aspirations finds [God's] nearness wajada qurbatahu. Whoever vies with others with his remorse finds [God's] mercy wajada raḥmatahu. When He mentioned the garden He described it by the vastness of its width and in that there is information about its height because the height is comparable to the width. But when He mentioned forgiveness he did not mention height or width so some people have said that forgiveness is from the [divine] attributes of the essence ṣifāt al-dhāt and is part of the meaning of mercy raḥma. According to this way of thinking His forgiveness is His decree ḥukm in overlooking [the misdeeds of] the servant and His speech kalām. The quality of the essence is too holy for size and width. [On the other hand] those who say His forgiveness belongs with the [divine] attributes of actions ṣifāt al-fiʿl say that because of the abundance of sins He did not describe forgiveness as having any end thus indicating that it encompasses all sins. Who expend in prosperity and adversity: They do not hoard anything from God and prefer Him over everything.
