Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:89

His (Exalted is He) saying: "Do they not see..." and so on, is a form of rebuke and condemnation from Him (Exalted is He) toward the misguided and those who lead others astray, collectively. It is an act of belittling them regarding the abominable deed they embarked upon—the invalidity and impossibility of which is not hidden from anyone—which is the taking of that calf as a god. By my life, had they not been as dull-witted as cattle, they would not have worshipped it. The fa (in afala) is for conjunction with an implied antecedent necessitated by the context; meaning: Do they not reflect, then act?

"That it does not return to them any speech": meaning it does not return a word to them, nor does it respond to them with an answer; rather, it bellows just like other calves. How, then, can someone of this nature be imagined to be a god?

Imam al-Shafi’i, Abu Haywah, Aban, Ibn Subayh, and al-Za’farani read yarji’u (return) in the subjunctive mood (nasb), on the basis that an is the particle of subjunction (the accusative marker) and not the an that is a contraction of the heavy anna. Vision in this reading is in the sense of visual perception, not knowledge, based on what al-Radi and a group of scholars mentioned: that the particle of subjunction does not occur after verbs of the heart (mental states) that indicate certainty or prevailing opinion. This is because, due to its nature of indicating the future, it enters upon that which is not established or fixed, and thus it is not appropriate for it to occur after what indicates certainty or the like. The conjunction is also as mentioned previously; meaning: Do they not look, then fail to see that it does not return to them any speech at all? The attachment of the visual perception to that which is mentioned—despite it being a non-existent matter—is to alert [the listener] to the perfection of its obviousness, which necessitates further disgrace for them and reveals the deficiency of their intellects. It has been said that the particle of subjunction does not occur after visual ra’a (to see) either, because it conveys knowledge through the sensation of sight, as stated in Idah al-Mufassal. However, al-Farra’ and Ibn al-Anbari permitted its occurrence after verbs of knowledge, let alone after verbs of vision.

His (Exalted is He) saying: "And it possesses no power for them to cause harm or bring benefit," is a conjunction with "it does not return," falling under the scope of the vision; meaning: Do they not see that it has no power to ward off harm from them or bring benefit to them, or that it cannot harm them if they do not worship it, nor benefit them if they do?