Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:99
Not upon the Messenger is [responsibility] except [for] notification. And Allah knows whatever you reveal and whatever you conceal.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: مَا عَلَى الرَّسُولِ إِلا الْبَلاغُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تُبْدُونَ وَمَا تَكْتُمُونَ (99) (The Messenger has only the duty of conveyance, and Allah knows what you make public and what you conceal) (99).
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is, from Allah, exalted be His remembrance, a threat and a warning to His servants. He, exalted be His remembrance, says: Our Messenger, whom We have sent to you, O people, to warn you against Our punishment before a severe torment, and to convey Our excuse to you with that in which lies the cutting off of your arguments, has only the duty of delivering Our message to you. Thereafter it is upon Us to reward for obedience, and upon Us to punish for disobedience. "And Allah knows what you make public and what you conceal," that is to say: it is not hidden from Us who among you is obedient, accepting Our message and acting according to what I have commanded him to do, nor who among the disobedient refuses Our message and neglects to act according to what I have commanded him to do; for We know what the doer among you performs and expresses with his limbs and utters with his tongue. "And what you conceal," that means: what you keep hidden within your innermost selves of belief or unbelief, or certainty and doubt and hypocrisy (nifāq).
He, exalted be His remembrance, says: Whoever is thus, from whom nothing is hidden of the secrets of the hearts and of the outward deeds of the souls, of what is in the heavens and what is on the earth, and in Whose hand lie the reward and the punishment, He truly deserves that one should fear Him, that one should obey Him and not disobey.