Tafsir of An-Nahl 16:100

(His authority is only over those who take him as an ally), meaning those who appoint him as a guardian over themselves, loving him, obeying him, and responding to his call. The intended meaning of "authority" here is dominance and guardianship through an invitation that entails a response; it is not meant to be inclusive of dominance through coercion and compulsion. Indeed, making "taking as an ally" the relative clause for ma (in innama) clearly negates the intended meaning of coercive dominance, as the one who is coerced is far removed from being an ally in this sense. This was also negated for the disbelievers in the Almighty’s statement, narrating from the accursed one: (And I had no authority over you except that I invited you), and you responded to me.

(And those who, because of him), meaning because of Satan and his misguidance of them, (are associators) of others with Allah Almighty. It has been said: It means that by associating Satan with Allah, they become associators of others with Allah. It is permissible that the pronoun refers to the Lord—exalted is His majesty—and the ba (in bihi) is for transitivity (meaning: they associate others with Him). This has been narrated from Mujahid, and the first view is preferred due to the uniformity of pronouns therein and its immediacy to the mind. The sound intellect holds an indication that favors the latter view.

It is also mentioned therein that limiting the authority of the accursed one to those mentioned, after negating it for the believing, reliant ones, is proof that there is no intermediary in reality between reliance upon Allah Almighty and taking Satan as an ally, even if there is an intermediary between them in terms of concept. Thus, whoever does not rely upon Allah Almighty is included in the rank of those who take Satan as an ally, from where they do not expect, as this is how the causality is completed. In this lies an exaggeration in inciting reliance upon Allah and warning against its opposite.

The preference for the future verbal sentence in the first relative clause is for what has passed previously, and the nominal sentence in the second is to indicate what is established. The repetition of the relative noun (alladhina) is to avoid the misconception that the relative clause is a state-qualifier (hal) that would imply the exclusion of those who are not associators from among the allies of Satan from falling under his authority. The first is placed before the second—which corresponds to the first relative clause mentioned previously—to observe the comparison between it and what corresponds to it, namely, reliance upon Allah Almighty; for had the previous order been observed, each of the two pairs would have been separated from its counterpart. It has also been said: Since each of faith and taking an ally is a source of what follows it, it was placed before it. The prepositional phrase is placed early to observe the rhythmic endings of the verses.