Tafsir of Az-Zukhruf 43:69

(Those who believed in Our verses and were Muslims)

"O My servants" is a general address that is specified either by the preceding verse or the succeeding one, and the former is more appropriate for several reasons. The conjunctive phrase (Those who...) is either an adjective for the vocative, a substitute (badal), or an object of a suppressed verb, meaning "I praise," or similar. The sentence "(and were Muslims)" is a circumstantial clause (hal) for the pronoun in "(believed)," either with a [suppressed] particle or without. It has been permitted to view it as coordinated with the relative clause (silah), but the circumstantial interpretation is stronger because the speech regarding it is more eloquent. This is because the intended meaning of "Islam" here is submission and sincerity; therefore, mentioning it after "faith" provides a benefit. If it is made a circumstantial clause, it denotes—after they were already characterized by faith in the past—its continuation into the time of faith, and "kāna" (were) also indicates continuity. From this comes the emphasis and superior eloquence, unlike coordination. The same applies to a single-word circumstantial qualifier, such as saying: "Those who believed in Our verses while being sincere."

More than one of the seven reciters read "Yā 'Ibādi" (O My servants) with the yā, which is the original form, whereas dropping it is frequent and common; Hafs, Hamzah, and al-Kisa'i read it with the omission. Ibn Muḥaiṣin read "Lā khawfun" (No fear) in the nominative case without tanwīn, while al-Ḥasan, al-Zuhrī, Ibn Abī Isḥāq, ‘Īsā, Ibn ‘Umar, and Ya‘qūb read it with the fatḥah (accusative) without tanwīn.