Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:116

Shaykh al-Islam said: When it was established that He, the Exalted, is exclusively characterized by wisdom—due to His being self-sufficient in matters that necessitate this, such as the revelation of the Book that distinguishes between truth and falsehood, the absolute truthfulness of His speech, the perfection of His justice in His decrees, the impossibility of anyone altering anything of them, and His, Glory be to Him, unique possession of complete encompassment of all that is heard and known—He followed this by clarifying that the disbelievers possess the deficiencies of those perfections. These deficiencies are misguidance, leading others astray, and following corrupt conjectures born of ignorance and lying against Allah, the Exalted. This speech serves to manifest the disparity between their state and what they claim, and as a warning against relying upon them or acting according to their opinions. Thus, the Exalted spoke as He did.

It is also possible that this is a form of guidance to follow the Qur'an and hold fast to it after clarifying its perfection in the most complete manner, addressed to him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his nation. It is said: The Prophet, peace be upon him, was addressed, but others were intended. "Those upon the earth" refers to mankind, and "most of them" refers to the disbelievers. It is also said that it encompasses them and others among the ignorant and followers of desire. Others say it refers specifically to the people of Mecca, as the earth here refers to their land, and most of its people at that time were disbelievers.

Some people claim that this is, in meaning, a prohibition against following anyone other than the prophets, peace be upon them, since they and the noble ones are few—the fewest of people in number—and the Exalted has said: "So follow their guidance." This is as you can see. Similar is the possibility that it is a prohibition against following anyone other than Allah, the Exalted; for if one were to obey most of those on earth, they would mislead one, let alone obeying a few or even one of them. The meaning is: if you obey any of the disbelievers by opposing what has been legislated for you and what He has deposited in the words revealed from Him to you, they will mislead you from the truth; or that if you obey the disbelievers by appointing one of them as a judge, they will mislead you from the path that leads to Him or from the law He has legislated for His servants.

"They follow not..."—that is, they do not follow in what they are upon regarding polytheism and misguidance—"...except conjecture." And conjecture, in matters concerning Allah, the Exalted, does not avail anything against the truth; nothing suffices there except knowledge. And how could they possess it? This is contrary to other rulings and their causes; for instance, knowledge is not a condition for them, otherwise most worldly and otherworldly interests would be lost. The difference between the two, as stated by Izz al-Din ibn ‘Abd al-Salam in his Qawa'id al-Kubra (Major Rules), is that the one who conjectures allows for the possibility of the opposite of what he conjectures. Thus, if one conjectures an attribute of the Deity, the Almighty, it would allow for its opposite, which is a deficiency, and deficiency is not permissible for Him, Glory be to Him. This is unlike [practical] rulings; if one conjectures that the lawful is forbidden or the forbidden is lawful, there is no allowance for deficiency regarding the Lord, Majestic is He, because if He were to make the forbidden lawful or the lawful forbidden, that would not be a deficiency for Him, Almighty and Exalted. Thus, the possibility of it revolves between two matters, both of which are perfections, unlike attributes.

Many have said: The meaning is that they follow nothing except their conjecture that their forefathers were upon the truth, along with their own ignorance and false opinions. "Conjecture" here is intended to mean the opposite of knowledge, i.e., ignorance. Therefore, there is no evidence in the verse that acting upon conjecture is impermissible in an absolute sense, so those who deny analogy (qiyas) have no basis in it. The Imam, after establishing the manner of their deduction, said: "The answer is: why is it not permissible to say that 'conjecture' refers to a dominant belief that is not based on a sign? This is like the conjecture of the disbelievers. But if the dominant belief is based upon a sign, it is not called conjecture." This is as you can see.

"...and they..."—meaning they are nothing but—"...are but lying." That is, they tell lies. The root of al-khars (conjecture/lying) is speaking based on supposition; it is the act of one who is not certain and does not verify, as al-Azhari said. From this comes khars al-nakhl (estimating the yield of date palms), which is khars (estimating). The meaning is that the nature of these people is lying, and they persist in renewing it time after time, alongside their state of following conjecture regarding the affairs of their Creator, the Almighty.

The Imam said: The meaning is that these disbelievers who dispute with you regarding your religion and your way are not certain about the correctness of their own ways; rather, they follow only conjecture, and they are liars in their claim of certainty. The weakness of restricting lying to the "claim of certainty" is not hidden. Many have said: The meaning is that they lie against Allah, the Exalted, regarding what they attribute to Him, Majestic is He—such as taking a son, making the worship of idols a means to Him, the Exalted, and declaring the dead animal and the bahirah (she-camel) to be lawful, and the like. Perhaps what we have gone with is more appropriate and more eloquent in condemnation. It is also possible that the meaning is that these disbelievers follow the conjecture of their ancestors in their religious affairs, and that their own nature is likewise conjecture. The sum of this is their condemnation for their corruption and the corruption of their principles, though this is far-fetched.