Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:102

"That is Allah, your Lord..."

This is a pointing reference to the One described with the aforementioned magnificent attributes. The distance implied in the demonstrative pronoun is due to the reason mentioned repeatedly, and the address is directed to the polytheists, as is customary, by way of shift (iltifat). Al-Tabarsi held the view that it is addressed to all people.

"That" is the subject (mubtada'), and the Almighty’s saying: "Allah is your Lord, there is no god but He, the Creator of all things" consists of four synonymous predicate statements. That is to say: He who is described with those attributes of magnificent status is Allah, the One exclusively deserving of worship, the Master of your affairs, who has no partner whatsoever, the Creator of everything that was and shall be. The factor considered in the subject's title, as necessitated by the pointing, is strictly His creatorship—exalted is He—of what has already come to pass, as indicated by the past-tense verb form.

It is permissible for the Majestic Name to be a substitute (badal) for the demonstrative pronoun, with "your Lord" as its adjective, and what follows as the predicate; or for the Majestic Name to be the predicate and what follows to be a substitute for it; or for it to be a substitute while the remaining parts are predicates; or to designate for each of the three predicates a separate subject; or to treat the whole as one single noun; or for "the Creator of all things" to be a substitute for the pronoun. Other possibilities are also permitted.

The Almighty’s saying: "So worship Him" is a result derived from the content of the sentence, for the One who combines these attributes is the only one deserving of worship. Some have claimed that the worship commanded here is the ultimate submissiveness, which cannot be reconciled with associating partners with Him. Thus, it was deemed sufficient to say this, rather than saying "do not worship anyone but Him," and it is understood from this that the mere concept of worship implies exclusivity. The claim that the precedence of the object in "You alone we worship" (Iyyaka na'budu) provides such exclusivity does not conflict with this, as there is no prohibition against establishing exclusivity through two ways, as in "To Allah belongs all praise" (Lillahi al-hamd) and the like.

Why did the Almighty say here: "That is Allah, your Lord; there is no god but He; the Creator of all things; so worship Him," while in Surah Ghafir He said: "That is Allah, your Lord, the Creator of all things; there is no god but He; so how are you deluded?"? Some investigators have stated that this verse came after His saying: "And they have attributed to Allah partners..." etc. When the Majestic One said "That is Allah, your Lord," He followed it with that which negates association, saying: "There is no god but He," and then "the Creator of all things." The other verse, however, came after His saying: "The creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of mankind, but most of the people do not know." The discourse there was on establishing and affirming the creation of mankind, not on negating a partner from Him—the Almighty—as was the case in the first verse. Thus, placing "the Creator of all things" first there was more appropriate. Allah the Exalted knows best the secrets of His speech.

"And He is, over all things, a Guardian." This is a conjunction to the previous sentence. That is, with all these attributes of magnificent status, He is the Disposer of all worldly and otherworldly affairs. It follows necessarily from this that no affair should be entrusted to other than Him, for they do not possess such disposal. It is permissible for this sentence to be in the position of a state (hal) and a restriction on worship, in which case the meaning becomes: He, the Almighty, alongside the aforementioned, is the Disposer of your affairs, so entrust them to Him and use your worship of Him as a means to the success of your objectives.

Some interpreted "Guardian" (Wakil) as "Watcher" (Raqib); meaning, He—the Exalted—is watching over your deeds and will recompense you for them. Our scholars have used the generality of "the Creator of all things" to prove that He—the Exalted—is the Creator of the deeds of His servants.

The Mu'tazilah argued: "We hold that there are things here that remove the deeds of servants from this general scope:

1. The fact that this generality is followed by His saying 'So worship Him.' If the deeds of servants were included, the meaning of the verse would become: 'We have created your deeds, so you perform them yourselves again,' and the corruption of this is obvious.
2. 'The Creator of all things' is mentioned in the context of praise and commendation, and one is not praised for creating acts like adultery, sodomy, theft, and disbelief.
3. After this, He said: 'There has come to you enlightenment from your Lord; so whoever sees, it is for himself, and whoever is blind, it is against himself,' which is an explicit statement that the servant is independent in acting or abstaining, and that there is no obstacle for him.
4. This verse was brought after 'And they have attributed to Allah partners... the jinn.' The intent, as narrated from the scholar (Ibn Abbas), is a rebuttal against the Magians in their assertion of two gods. Therefore, 'Creator of all things' must be interpreted as a refutation of that, which occurs when we say: 'He—the Exalted—is the Creator of what this world contains of predatory beasts, pains, and the like.' If interpreted this way, the deeds of servants are not included."

It is not hidden that there is scrutiny to be made regarding these points. Similar to this is their reliance on this verse to negate attributes and to claim that the Quran is created. So reflect on this.