Tafsir of Al-Ma'idah 5:16

The unification of the pronoun [in "by it"]—despite the duality of the preceding mentions [the Book and the Light]—is because the referent is essentially one, or because they are both in the ruling of a single thing, or because what is meant is "He guides by what has been mentioned." The prepositional phrase is placed first to show importance, in consideration of the context. The Glorious Name [Allah] is explicitly stated to manifest the perfection of concern regarding the matter of guidance.

The position of the sentence is in the nominative state as a second attribute of "a Book," or in the accusative state as a circumstantial qualifier (hal) of it, due to its specification by the [first] attribute. Abu al-Baqa' permitted it to be a circumstantial qualifier of "Our Messenger" as a substitute for "clarifies," or a circumstantial qualifier of the pronoun in "clarifies," or a circumstantial qualifier of the pronoun in "manifest," or an attribute of "a Light."

(مَنِ اتَّبَعَ رِضْوَانَهُ) Meaning: Whoever Allah the Exalted knows desires to follow the pleasure of Allah the Exalted through faith in Him. "Man" (whoever) is a relative noun or an indefinite noun [qualified by an adjective].

(سُبُلَ السَّلَامِ) Meaning: The paths of safety from every fear. This was stated by al-Zajjaj; thus "al-salam" is an infinitive meaning "safety" (al-salamah). Al-Hasan and al-Suddi stated that it is one of the names of the Exalted. The explicit noun was placed in the position of a pronoun as a refutation of the Jews, the Christians, and those who attribute shortcomings to Him—Exalted is He far above what they say. In this case, "His paths" would mean His laws which He has legislated for His servants. It [subul] is in the accusative case; it is said: because it is the second object of "guides" with the elision of the preposition, similar to "And Moses chose his people [for Our appointed time]." Others said: it is a substitution for "His pleasure," either a total substitution, a partial substitution, or a substitution of inclusion. "Ridwan" (pleasure) is read with both a kasra and a damma on the 'ra', both of which are dialects. "Subul" (paths) is read with both damma and quiescence of the 'ba', both of which are dialects.

(وَيُخْرِجُهُم) The accusative pronoun refers back to "whoever" (man), and the plural is used in consideration of the meaning, just as the singular pronoun in "followed" is in consideration of the wording.

(مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِهِ) Meaning: From the various types of disbelief and misguidance to faith. "By His permission" means by His will or by His granting of success (tawfiq).

(وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ) This is the religion of Islam, which leads to Allah the Exalted, as al-Hasan said. In Irshad al-'Aql al-Salim, it is stated: This guidance is identical to the guidance to the "paths of safety." It is conjoined to it by treating descriptive distinction as being equivalent to essential distinction, as in His saying: "And when Our command came, We saved Shu'ayb and those who believed with him by mercy from Us, and We saved them from a severe torment."

Al-Jubba'i said: What is meant by the "straight path" is the paths to Paradise.