Tafsir of Luqman 31:30

"That" is a reference to what the verses have contained and indicated regarding the vastness of knowledge, the perfection of power, and the exclusivity of the Creator, may His glory be exalted, to these attributes.

"Because Allah is the Truth" means because He, the Glorified, is the only One who is firm and realized in His essence—that is, the Necessary Being.

"And that what they call upon other than Him is falsehood" refers to that which is nonexistent in its own essence, which is the contingent being that exists only through something else, whereas the Necessary Being, may His glory be exalted, is the opposite.

"And that Allah is the Most High" over all things; "the Grand"—far removed from having a partner, may He be glorified and exalted, or from being characterized by any deficiency. There is nothing higher than Him in rank, nor greater in authority.

The reason for the causality of the first point mentioned is that His being, the Exalted, the sole Necessary Being in His essence, necessitates that He alone is the Creator of all the wondrous creations. This indicates the perfection of His power, the Mighty and Majestic, alone—for Al-Ijab (the doctrine of necessary causation in creation) has been refuted in the fundamental principles of faith. Whoever is the source of all those creations must necessarily be all-knowing, as has been explained in the discourse.

The reason for the causality of the third point is that His being, the Exalted, the sole One high above all things, dominating them, and transcendently free from having a partner or being characterized by deficiency, necessitates that He alone is the Necessary Being in His essence. You have already heard the discourse regarding this.

As for the causality of the statement that "what they call upon other than Him is falsehood" (being a contingent being in itself), it is because its contingency—despite the high status they attribute to it over other things they do not consider divine—necessitates the contingency of everything else other than Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. This is because the evidence of its contingency is present in everything else, exactly as one arrow matches another. Once what they call upon as a god other than Him—and everything else besides Allah, the Glorified and Exalted—is established as contingent, the necessity of existence is restricted to Allah the Exalted. Thus, He alone, the Glorified, is the Necessary Being in His essence, and you have learned that this yields the desired conclusion.

It is as if the phrasing "that what they call upon other than Him is falsehood" was used, rather than, for instance, "that everything other than Him is falsehood," in imitation of Labid’s saying: Verily, everything other than Allah is falsehood. This is to highlight the heinousness of their position. By the same token, it necessitates the contingency of all created beings other than Allah the Exalted, a fortiori, based on what the polytheists claim regarding the high status of their deities.

The text does not suffice with "because Allah is the Truth" to explain the cause; rather, it attaches to it what follows—even though it returns to the same meaning—to demonstrate the utmost importance given to the desired conclusion and to what is indicated by the explicit wording of the conjuncts regarding the invalidity of a partner and the fact that He is the Most High, the Grand.

It has been said: "That" refers to the description of the wonders of power and wisdom contained in the verses, occurring because Allah the Exalted is the God whose divinity is established, while what is besides Him, the Glorified, is false in divinity, and that Allah the Exalted is the Most High in rank and the Grand in authority. The pivot of this causality is His, the Glorified, being the only one whose divinity is established. Al-Tayyibi explained this by noting that it is settled that whoever is a god must be powerful, creator, knowing, and possess other attributes of perfection. He then stated that the words of the Exalted, "That is because Allah is the Truth," serve as a summary (fadhla) for what preceded, from His saying, "Do you not see that Allah has subjected for you..." to this point; and His saying, "And that Allah is the Most High, the Grand," serves as a summary for all the terminal clauses mentioned there.

Perhaps what we have presented is more worthy of consideration. The learned scholar Abu al-Sa‘ud said in objection to this: "You are aware that His, the Exalted, being the Truth, His Highness, and His Grandeur—while fitting as a basis for the aforementioned attributes—the invalidity of the divinity of idols has absolutely no role in this basis. Thus, there is no room to weave it into the chain of causes; rather, it is a reversal of the matter. Necessarily, the mentioned attributes are what necessitate their invalidity, not that their invalidity necessitates these attributes." This is subject to reflection, and what is astonishing is that he himself mentioned the same thing he objected to in a similar verse in Surah Al-Hajj without following it up with any critique.

It is permissible that the meaning is: "That"—that is, what was recited from the noble verses—is because of the clarification that Allah is the Truth in His divinity alone; because they are eloquent in the truth of Monotheism; for the sake of clarifying the invalidity of the divinity of what they call upon other than Him, as they provide clear testimony that admits no doubt; and for the sake of clarifying that He is the One who is elevated above every thing and dominates it. For what is within the folds of those noble verses clarifies the exclusivity of highness and grandeur to Him. This is an explanation that requires no artificiality other than assuming the omission of an added noun (mudaf), as is not hidden.

It seems the phrasing here is "And that what they call upon other than Him is falsehood," without the pronoun of separation (damir al-fasl), whereas in Surah Al-Hajj it is, "And that what they call upon other than Him is the falsehood," with the inclusion of the pronoun of separation, because the censure of the polytheists and their deities is in this Surah, unlike the nature of the censure in that one.

Al-Nisaburi said regarding this that the verse in Al-Hajj occurs between ten verses, each verse being emphasized once or twice, so the inclusion of the pronoun was appropriate, unlike here. It could also be said that the mention of Satan was preceded in that Surah several times, hence those emphases were mentioned, unlike this Surah, in which the mention of Satan did not precede as it did there.

Nafi‘, Ibn Kathir, Ibn ‘Amir, and Abu Bakr recited tad‘una (you call upon) with the ta indicating the second person.