ﲖ ﲗ ﲘ ﲙ ﲚ ﲛ ﲜ ﲝ ﲞ ﲟ ﲠ ﲡ ﲢ ﲣ ﲤ ﲥ ﲦ ﲧ ﲨ ﲩ ﲪ ﲫ ﲬ ﲭ
Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided.
Tafsir
Verse range: 16:125
And among them are the commoners, those with clouded souls, weak in readiness, strongly accustomed to sensible things, and strongly attached to external forms and habits, falling short of the level of demonstration, but having no obstinacy; these are invited with "goodly admonition" in the aforementioned sense.
And among them are those who are obstinate and argue with falsehood to refute the truth because of the imitation of predecessors that has overcome them and the false beliefs that have taken root in them, such that admonitions and lessons do not benefit them; rather, it is necessary to force the stone into their mouths through the best methods of debate so that their harshness may soften and their stubbornness may dissipate. These are those whom he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was commanded to debate with "that which is best." Fallacy (mughalatah) and poetry were not considered because the benefit of fallacy is to deceive the opponent and [the need] to guard against his deceiving one, and the rank of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, precludes him from deceiving or being deceived. Poetry, even if useful for the elite and the commoners—for people in matters of action and inaction are more obedient to imagination than to conviction—its pivot is on falsehood; hence it is said: "The most lying poetry is the most pleasant." Thus, it does not befit the Truthful (Sadiq) and the one confirmed as truthful (Musduq), as evidenced by the words of the Exalted: (We have not taught him poetry, nor does it befit him). It should not be said that poetry, which is one of the arts, is a syllogism composed of imaginative premises, and that the poetry whose pivot is falsehood is [merely] rhymed and metered speech—which is what was denied to be taught to him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—since it has been said: The condemnation of poetry is not because it is rhymed and metered speech, but because it contains false imaginations. Thus, both are of the same valley.
Some of the later scholars have mentioned that [the verse] contains an indication of the varying ranks of those being invited, though they differed on some of the aforementioned points. In al-Kashf, after mentioning that the speech of al-Zamakhshari indicates that he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—should combine the three in the invitation—so that the speech is in itself well-composed, productive of the goal for which it was addressed, and intended as sincere advice for the addressee, and the speaker is of good character, acting as a teacher, advisor, compassionate and gentle guide—it states: "The best, according to what the verifiers hold, is that it is a generalization of the invitation according to the ranks of the invited in understanding and readiness. Those invited by the tongue of wisdom to attain experiential or demonstrative certainty are the forerunners, and those invited by goodly debate are the commoners and the people of Islam, and the disbelievers as well." I do not see anything that necessitates denying that "goodly admonition" means well-known addresses, and that its being composed of probabilistic premises or ones accepted from a person in whom one believes—and it not befitting the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to use probabilistic arguments or adopt another's speech and invite with it—is what necessitated that, and its state is not hidden, so contemplate it.
[Al-Ahsa'i, head of the al-Shaykhiyyah sect in our time, mentioned in his book Sharh al-Fawa'id that the gist is that the invited ones among the accountable are of three types...]
It has been permitted that "wisdom" and "goodly admonition" refer to the Glorious Quran, for it combines both matters, as if it were said: "Invite with the Quran, which is wisdom and goodly admonition." Others have said otherwise. Among these [views] is that wisdom is prophethood, and [the view] that it is not wisdom. Some interpreted "goodly debate" as turning away from their harm and claimed that the verse is abrogated by the Verse of the Sword. The majority hold that it is Muhkam (unabrogated) and that the meaning of the verse is what has preceded.
Because wisdom is the highest and noblest of proofs, and those invited by it are the perfect ones seeking divine knowledge and true sciences—and they are few—it was mentioned first. Because debate is the lowest of proofs, for there is no intent in it except to bind and silence the opponent, and it is used only with the deficient who are overcome by agitation and disputation and are not in a position to attain those sciences, it was mentioned last. Because goodly admonition is below proof and above debate, and those invited by it are the intermediates who have not reached the perfection of the verifier-sages nor the deficiency of those agitators, it was placed in the middle between the two matters. It is as if he did not say, "Invite to the way with wisdom, goodly admonition, and the best debate," because debate is not of the category of invitation; rather, its intent is another goal distinct from it, which is binding and silencing, as the Imam stated. So let it be understood.
It is said: The meaning is, follow the aforementioned method in invitation and debate, for He, the Exalted, is more knowing of the state of him who will not desist from misguidance due to his evil choice, and the state of him whose affair leads to guidance due to the good in him; so what He has legislated for you in invitation is what wisdom requires, as it is sufficient for the guidance of the guided and the removal of the excuse of the misguided.
It is said: The meaning is, your duty is only the delivery of the message, so do not persist with them if they refuse after you have delivered it once or twice, for your Lord is more knowing of them. Whoever has good in him will be satisfied with brief advice, and whoever has no good in him, even pressing [the message] will fail with him. The misguided are mentioned first because the speech is about them. Misguidance is brought in the form of a verb indicating occurrence (huduth) because it is a change of the innate nature (fitrah) of Allah upon which He created people, and a turning away from the invitation, and that is a contingent matter; unlike guidance, which is an expression of sticking to the innate nature and proceeding according to the requirement of the invitation, which is why it is brought in the form of a noun (ism) indicating stability.
The sentence (He is more knowing of the guided) is said to be a conjunction to the sentence (Indeed, your Lord...) or a predicate for Inna. The repetition of (He is more knowing) is for emphasis and to signal the disparity in the states of the two groups and their respective ends of punishment and reward. In the first sentence, it is a pronoun of separation (damir fasl) for specification, as is the apparent view of some, or for strengthening, as has been said. The subtlety of referring to the title of Lordship along with the annexation to his pronoun, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is not hidden.
