Tafsir of Al-Anbiya' 21:52-53

(When he said to his father and his people) is an adverbial phrase for "We gave" (in the previous verse), implying that it was a broad period during which the giving occurred, along with the words and actions that followed it. It is also permissible for it to be an adverbial phrase for "righteousness" or "knowledgeable," or to be a substitute for the position of "before," or to be in the accusative case by an implied "I mean" or "Recall." He began by mentioning the father because he was the most significant person to him, peace be upon him, regarding advice and rescue from misguidance. The apparent meaning is that he, peace be upon him, said it to him and his people while they were gathered: (What are these statues to which you are devoted?)

(52) He, peace be upon him, intended: "What are these idols?" However, he referred to them as statues to belittle their status; for a statue (timthal) is a crafted image resembling one of the creations of Allah Almighty, derived from "likening a thing to a thing" (mathalta) when you compare them. It is said they were images of men they believed in who had passed away, and it is also said they were images of stars that they crafted according to their imaginations. Pointing to them with a pronoun used for the near is also an indication of contempt. Questioning them with "what" (ma), which is used to seek the nature of a thing or the explanation of a name, is a case of "feigning ignorance," as if he did not know what they were—whereas he, peace be upon him, was fully aware that their reality was stone or something similar.

‘Ukuf (devotion) is approaching a thing and adhering to it by way of magnifying it. It is also said to be the persistence and continuity upon a thing for any purpose. According to both interpretations, it is less than "worship," so his choice of this term over "worship" contains an allusion to making the nature of worship appear extremely abhorrent. The "lam" in "to which" (laha) is for clarification, meaning it relates to an omitted element, as in His saying, "If you interpret the vision" (li-l-ru’ya ta‘burun), or it is for causation, in which case it relates to ‘akifun (devoted). It is not for transitivity, because the verb ‘akafa (to devote) only takes the preposition ‘ala (upon), as in His saying: "devoted to idols of theirs" (ya‘kufuna ‘ala asnam). The adjective here has been placed in the position of the predicate, meaning "to which you are acting with devotion."

Abu Hayyan favored the view that it is for causation and that the complement of ‘akifun is omitted—meaning, devoted to worshipping them. It is also permissible for the "lam" to mean "upon" (‘ala), as has been said regarding His saying: "And if you do evil, it is against it" (fa-laha), in which case it relates to ‘akifun as a transitive marker. It is also permitted that ‘ukuf be interpreted as "worship," in which case the "lam" is, as they say, a support and not a transitive marker, because the verb would be transitive by itself. This view is supported by what follows. It is also said: it is not far-fetched that the "lam" is for specialization, and the prepositional phrase relates to an omitted predicate, while ‘akifun is a predicate after a predicate. You know that to deny what follows it is stubbornness. Some people did not accept the interpretation of ‘ukuf as "worship" because of what Ibn Abi Shaybah, ‘Abd ibn Humayd, Ibn Abi al-Dunya in Dhamm al-Malahi, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abi Hatim, and al-Bayhaqi in al-Shu‘ab recorded on the authority of Ali—may Allah Almighty be pleased with him—that he passed by a people playing chess and said: "What are these statues to which you are devoted? For one of you to touch a coal until it extinguishes is better for him than to touch them." This has a perspective that is not hidden. Indeed, it is not far-fetched that the best course is to keep ‘ukuf in its literal sense, even though the primary objective is to inquire about the reason for their worship and to rebuke them for it in the most refined style. When they found nothing to rely upon regarding them, they resorted to clinging to the straw of pure imitation, as (they said: "We found our fathers worshipping them.")

(53)