Tafsir of Al-Anbiya' 21:56

(He said, "Nay, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, Who originated them")—meaning, He brought them into existence along with everything within them, including you, your forefathers, and what you worship, without any preceding model to follow or law to imitate. This is a transition from exposing their misguidance in worshipping idols and negating their entitlement to such worship, toward clarifying the truth and specifying the One who deserves to be worshipped.

The pronoun in "originated them" (fatara-hunna) refers either to the heavens and the earth, which Abu Hayyan favored; describing the Exalted as their Creator follows the description of His Lordship over them, as a way to verify the truth and alert [the listener] that what is not as such is far removed from the Lordship which is the source of the entitlement to worship. Or, the pronoun refers to the statues; this is considered more robust, as it more effectively establishes the truth and guides the addressees toward it. This pronoun is not among those specifically designated for rational feminine entities, as Ibn Atiyyah surmised, forcing himself to find a justification for its reference to the irrational.

His saying, ("And I am of those who bear witness to that") is an epilogue encompassing the refutation of their attributing play and jest to him. The reference is to the aforementioned [truth], and the first prepositional phrase is connected to an implied word—meaning, "And I am a witness to that, among those who bear witness"—or it is for the sake of clarification, meaning, "I mean, to that." It may also be connected to the description that follows, even if it is within the relative clause of al-, due to the well-known, broad applications of adverbial phrases. The meaning is: I am, regarding that which I have mentioned, among those who know it by way of verified, demonstrable reality, and I am not among those who play. For a witness to a thing is one who realizes and affirms it, and his testimony to it is his bringing forth the proof for it and establishing it thereby.

Shaykh al-Islam said: His saying, "Nay, your Lord..." is a turning away (idrab) from what they based their statement upon—the belief that those statues were their lords—as if it were said, "The matter is not so, but rather your Lord is..."

The Judge said: It is a turning away from the [accusation] that he, peace be upon him, was playing by presenting proof for what he claimed. Al-Tibi also made it a turning away from that. He said: This answer is delivered in the style of al-uslub al-hakim (the wise method). It would have been apparent for him, peace be upon him, to answer them by saying, "Nay, I am among those who speak the truth and am not among the players." Instead, he came with the words, "Nay, your Lord..." to alert them that the invalidation of what you are devoted to and the exposing of your misguidance is something that requires no proof because of its clarity. However, look at this momentous reality: you abandon the worship of your Creator, the Master of your affairs, your Provider, the Owner of the worlds, and the One Who originated what you are devoted to, and instead occupy yourselves with worshipping them rather than Him. What falsehood is more manifest than this, and what misguidance is clearer?

His saying, "And I am of those who bear witness to that" is an epilogue to the answer that is the counterpart to "Or are you one of the players?" both in terms of style (metaphor) and composition (building the predicate upon the pronoun). It is as if he said: "I am not among those who play with claims, but rather I am among those who know them through decisive proofs and brilliant arguments, like a witness by whom we settle disputes." It is not hidden that this could be interpreted under the assumption that "or" (am) is conjunctive. So understand and contemplate, that the most worthy of these explanations for this idrab may become clear to you.