Tafsir of Ghafir 40:43

According to the school of the Basrans, the "la" (لا) serves as a rejection of a previous statement—namely, that which they are inviting him to in this context, consisting of disbelief in Allah and the association of false deities with Him, the Exalted and Majestic. "Jarma" (جرم) is a past-tense verb meaning "it was established and became true," as in the verse: “I struck Abu Ubaydah with a blow that caused (jaramat) Fazarah thereafter to be enraged.” The particle "anna" (أن) and what it governs function as its subject. That is, it is established and true that the idols you invite me to have no power to invite [anyone] to themselves at all. This means that it is the right of the True Object of worship to invite honored servants—such as prophets and angels—to Himself, commanding them to worship Him; then, the servants invite one another to Him—Exalted is He—and to His obedience, as a manifestation of the invitation of their Lord, the Exalted and Majestic. But the idols you invite [people] to, and to the worship of, do not themselves invite to anything, nor do they claim lordship in any way—neither in this world, for they are inanimate objects therein and are incapable of anything, including being called upon or calling; nor in the Hereafter, for when Allah, the Exalted, brings them to life therein, they will renounce those who called upon them and those who worshipped them.

The gist is: It is true that your deities have no claim to be invoked at all, therefore they are not true deities. Alternatively, it may be understood in the sense of "earning" (kasb), with its subject being the pronoun of the "invitation" mentioned previously (the invitation that his people had made to him). In this case, "anna" and what it governs is its object: that is, "Your invitation of me to your deities has earned nothing but the manifestation of the invalidity of their claim and that it has gone to waste."

It has also been said that "jarma" is a noun, a verbal noun (masdar) built upon a fatha, meaning "the cutting off," and the predicate is "anna" and what it governs, with the meaning: "There is no cutting off of the invalidity of the claim of the idols' divinity." That is, that invalidity will never be cut off or cease at any point in time so that it might turn into truth. This invalidity is the meaning of the negation understood from His saying: "has no claim to be invoked," etc. On this interpretation, "la jarma" is like "la budda" (inevitably), for it comes from tabdid (dispersion), which is the separation and disconnection of one part of something from another. Hence, it is said that the meaning is: "The invalidity of the claim of the idols is inevitable," meaning its invalidity is an apparent and established matter. This view is reported from Al-Farra, and according to him, this is the origin of "la jarma," but it became so frequently used that it came to mean "certainly." Thus, it is responded to in the same way an oath is responded to, as in the phrase: La jarma la-atiyannaka (Certainly, I will surely come to you).

In Al-Kashshaf, it is reported from the Arabs: la jurma annahu yaf'alu (with a damma on the jim and a sukun on the ra), meaning "it must be," similar to rushd and rushd, or 'udm and 'udm. This dialect supports the interpretation of it as a noun in the other dialect, but it does not definitively establish it, as is clear. Some discussion regarding "la jarma" has already preceded, so let it be recalled.

The lam (in lahu) in all these interpretations is for attributing the invitation to the subject, according to the meaning I have recounted. It is also permitted that it refers to the object, for the disbelievers used to call upon their idols; thus, the verse negates their being called upon by them, in the sense of them responding to those who called upon them. The meaning would then be: "The idols you invite me to have no response to an invocation for those who call upon them at all," or "They have no claim to be called upon in a way that is answered"—that is, they are not called upon with a call that they answer. The speech is either based on the omission of a genitive (mudaf) or the omission of the described (mawsuf). It is also permissible to interpret "invitation" (da'wah) figuratively as the "response" to it which follows, just as an action is named after its reward in their saying: "As you judge, you shall be judged" (kama tadin tudan). This is of the category of mushakalah (correspondence in naming) according to some.

"And that our return is to Allah": That is, our reversion to Him, the Exalted, through death. This is conjoined to "that which you invite me to," and it is included under its ruling, as is His saying: "And that the musrifin (the extravagant/transgressors) are the companions of the Fire."

Ibn Mas'ud and Mujahid (the commentators) interpreted the musrifin here as "those who shed blood unjustly." Thus, the believer has concluded with an allusion to what he began with explicitly in his statement: "Are you killing a man...?"

From Qatadah, it is said that they are the polytheists, for polytheism is extravagance (israf) in misguidance. From Ikrimah, it is said that they are the tyrants and the arrogant. It is also said: whoever allows their evil to outweigh their good is musrif.

The meaning of "companions of the Fire" is those who are inseparable from it. If by musrifin one includes the sinful believer, then "inseparability" is intended in the conventional sense, encompassing a long duration of stay. If by them one means specifically the disbelievers, then it refers to eternity.