Why would God chastise you if you are thankful and believeḍ God is ever Thankful Knowing. This verse is among the verses which evoke beautiful hope and powerful optimism because He has appointed two things as tokens of protection from punishment. These are thankfulness shukr and belief īmān which are simple and light-hearted qualities. Thankfulness or praise is an asser- tion qāla and belief or faith is a state ḥāla. When He is pleased with a servant's words and state He makes the way easy for him. Thankfulness or praise shukr is only sound when heard from one who is faithful rather than one who is not because it is an act of willing obedience Ṭāʿa. The obedience of those who have no faith is not genuine. And believe that is [believe or come to believe] in the end. It is as if He is explaining that salvation will only be for those who at the end of the day believe. The meaning of the verse then is that God will not chastise you with the chastisement of abiding [in hell] if you are thankful in your present state and believe in the end. It is said that when you are thankful and believe you attest to the fact that your salvation [comes] through God not through your thankfulness or your belief. It is said that thankfulness is witnessing the blessing from God and belief is seeing God in the blessing. It is as if He said “If you understand the blessing as coming from God then let not the witnessing of this blessing cut you off from witnessing the One who gives the blessing.” Wa kāna Allāh shākiran ʿalīman means God is ever Thankful Knowing Allāh shākirun ʿalīmun. The meaning of His being “thankful” is that He is the One who commends the servant and the One who bears witness to him in what he does. This is because the true sense and definition of thankfulness is praise for the one who acts in a beautiful way muḥsin by mentioning the beautiful action he does iḥsān. “The servant gives thanks to God” means he praises Him for His beautiful action iḥsān toward him which is His blessing to him. “The Lord gives thanks to the servant” means that He praises [the servant] for his beautiful action iḥsān which is his willing obedience Ṭāʿa to Him.
