Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:98

"Your god is only Allah" (20:98): This is an initiation of speech presented to establish the truth following the refutation of falsehood, by shifting the address and directing it toward everyone. That is, your only worshipped deity who is deserving of worship is Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.

"The One besides whom there is no deity" (20:98): He is alone, without anything sharing [divinity] with Him in any way, including the attributes of divinity. Talḥah read: "Allah, there is no deity except Him, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, Lord of the Throne."

"He has encompassed all things in knowledge" (20:98): This means His knowledge has encompassed everything that is capable of being known. Thus, "thing" here includes both the existent and the non-existent. "Knowledge" (ʿilman) is in the accusative case as a specifier (tamyīz) transformed from the agent (fāʿil). The sentence is a substitute for the relative clause (ṣilah); as if it were said: "Your god is only He who has encompassed all things in knowledge, no one else, whatever it may be." This includes the calf—which is a proverb for stupidity—in the most primary sense.

Mujāhid and Qatādah read wassaʿa (with a fatha on the sīn and a shaddah). In this reading, the accusative case of ʿilman is as a second object. Since in the first reading it was an agent in meaning, it is permissible to transfer it through transitivization to the object position, just as you say in "Zayd feared Amr": khawwaftu Zaydan ʿAmran (I made Zayd fear Amr). Thus, the meaning here, according to this, would be: "He made His knowledge encompass all things." However, you know that the discourse is not to be taken literally, for His knowledge—glorified be He—is not something "made." It should not be imagined that the Essence’s requirement of it, upon the assumption of augmentation, is a "making." With this, the discourse of Mūsā, peace be upon him, concludes.