Tafsir of Yunus 10:30

(There)—that is, in that precarious station and startling place, which is the place of the Gathering. "There" remains upon its original sense, which is a spatial adverb. It is also said that it is used metaphorically as a temporal adverb, meaning: at that time.

(Will experience)—that is, will test or verify.

(Every soul)—whether it be a believer or a disbeliever.

(What it has put forth)—of deeds; it shall behold the benefit or harm thereof with the most complete observation.

Hamzah and al-Kisa’i read it as (tatlu) (they will recite/follow), from the recitation (tilawah) in the sense of reading—the intended meaning being the reading of the records of what it has put forth. It is also said that this is a metonymy for the manifestation of deeds. It is further permitted that it is from "following" (talu), in the sense that the deed becomes embodied and manifest, and its doer follows it until it leads him into Paradise or the Fire, or it is a representation.

‘Asim, in one transmission from him, read it as (nablu) (We shall test), with the voiced ‘ba’ and the ‘nun’, with (kulla) being in the accusative case. This is on the basis that the agent of "We test" is the pronoun of His Exalted Majesty, and "every" is the object, while "what" is a substitute for it—a substitute of inclusion (badal al-ishtimal). The expression is a representative metaphor, meaning: There, We deal with every soul as one who tests it and investigates its conditions of happiness or wretchedness by examining what it has put forth of deeds. It is also permissible that it signifies "to cause to suffer with affliction," i.e., punishment, for every disobedient soul due to what it has put forth of evil; in this case, "what" is in the accusative case by the removal of the preposition (the causal ‘ba’).

(And they will be returned to Allah)—this is a conjunction to "We shall separate them" (zayyalna), and the pronoun refers to those who associated partners [with Allah]. What lies in between is a parenthetical clause in the midst of the narrative, confirming its content. The meaning is: they are returned to His recompense and punishment, or to the place of that, so the return is either conceptual or sensory. The Imam said: The meaning is that they are rendered compelled to acknowledge His Divinity, Exalted and Majestic is He.

(Their true Master)—meaning their Lord, the Real, the Truthful in His Lordship, not that which they took as a false lord. It is also read as (al-haqqa) in the accusative as an expression of praise, and the intent is Allah, the Exalted, and it is one of His names; or as an emphatic source (masdar), meaning that which opposes falsehood. There is no contradiction between this verse and His saying: "That is because Allah is the Master of those who believe, and that the disbelievers have no master," because the meaning of "Master" differs between the two. The Sheikh narrated from al-Suddi that the first is abrogated by the second, and the weakness of this is evident.

(And lost/vanished from them)—that is, wasted and disappeared from them.

(What they used to invent)—from the claim that their deities would intercede for them, or what they used to allege were partners to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. "What" (ma) is susceptible to being a relative noun or a masdari (infinitive) particle, and the clause is conjoined to His saying, "They were returned." Some have made it a conjunction to "We separated them," and the clause "They were returned" is conjoined to the clause "They will experience," and is included within the parenthetical expression. The collective pronoun refers to the souls indicated by "every soul." The shift to the past tense is to signify certainty and established occurrence. The preference for the plural form is to signal that their return to Him, the Exalted, will be by way of gathering. What we have mentioned is more appropriate in word and meaning.

The Sheikh al-Islam criticized making the pronoun refer to the "souls" and conjoining "They were returned" to "They will experience," etc., by stating that it does not befit the mention of the description of "Truth" in His saying, "Their true Master," for that is intended to rebuke those who are returned. He then said: Even if one were to suffice therein by rebuking some of them, or by interpreting "the Truth" as meaning "the Just" in reward and punishment—not interpreting the Master as the One who governs affairs—then His saying, "And lost from them," etc., is a place where there is absolutely no room for such reconciliation. This is because the three pronouns contained therein refer to the polytheists, which necessarily entails a rupture [in the discourse]. Furthermore, restricting "every soul" to the polytheistic souls, despite the generality of the testing for everyone, is rejected by the context of magnifying the station. And Allah knows best.

It is apparent that he considered the conjunction of "And lost from them," etc., to "They were returned," with its pronoun referring back to the "souls," and that is other than what we mentioned, so be aware.