Overall meaning : Allah commands His believing servants to fear Him and be mindful of Him to the best of their ability and to persevere in adhering to this religion to the very end of life.
He also commands them to unite and get together on the truth, and to avoid anything that may otherwise lead to disunity.
He further instructs them to remember His favour upon them how, after having been belligerent enemies before embracing Islam, He has brought their hearts together through this religion, so that they are now brothers by His grace. He reminds them how they were on the verge of falling into the Fire, but He saved them from it by guiding them to Islam. Thus does He explain to them His revelations so that they may be guided to the right path and follow it.
Allah then orders that there should be a group among them who invite people to His religion, enjoin them to do what Islam commands and forbid them from doing what it does not permit. These are the ones, He stresses, who will surely be successful.
Then He forbids them from splitting up and differing about their religion as did those before them, such as the Jews and the Christians, who disagreed in matters of religion after clear proofs preventing them from falling into disunity had come to them. On these Allah will inflict a terrible punishment on the Day of Judgement, when the faces of those who have achieved eternal bliss will turn white while the faces of those doomed to eternal damnation will turn black. It will be said, by way of reprimand, to those whose faces will turn black, ‘Did you disbelieve after having embraced the faith? Taste, then, Allah’s punishment for your unbelief.’ As for those whose faces will be white, they will be in Allah’s mercy because of the different types of bliss He has prepared for them in His gardens, to abide there forever.
Then, addressing His Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, He points out to him that He recites to him the foregoing revelations in truth, and that He never does any wrong to any of His creatures. To Him alone belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth, and to Him are all matters referred for decision.