Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:29

(And they said): This is a conjunction attached to "(they returned)" as held by the majority. Ibn al-Kamal objected to this, arguing that in that case, the phrase "(and indeed they are liars)" should have been delayed until after the conjunct or placed before the subject of the conjunction. It was answered that its placement in the middle is an intercalary clause intended to confirm the falsehood of their specific claim, as indicated by the conditional structure. Had it been delayed, it might have implied that the intention was only to accuse them of lying regarding their denial of the Resurrection. It is also permissible for it to be a conjunction attached to "(indeed they are liars)," or to the predicate of "indeed" (inna), or to "(they were forbidden)," with the referent (the pronoun) being implicit—that is, "they said it." It may also be an initiation of speech by mentioning what they said in the worldly life.

(It is): That is, there is nothing but our worldly life. The pronoun refers to the life mentioned after it, as in the statement of al-Mutanabbi: "It is effort, until the eye prefers its sister, and until the day becomes a master to the day." They have explicitly stated the validity of a pronoun referring to something that is delayed in wording and rank in certain positions, among which is when the predicate of the pronoun serves to explain it, as is the case here.

Some have categorized it as the "pronoun of the affair" (dhamir al-sha'n). However, this does not hold according to the school of the majority, for they stipulated that its predicate must be a sentence. The Kufans disagreed with them on this, as it has been reported from them that it is permissible for its predicate to be a singular term, either absolutely or on the condition that the singular term functions like a verb—such as an active participle—like "It is (innahu) standing (qa'imun) Zayd," based on the idea that it then occupies the place of a sentence. It has also been said—though there is remoteness in this view—that the mentioned pronoun refers to that which is established in the mind, which is "life." The meaning being: "Life is nothing but our life which we are in." This is what they mean by their saying "the worldly" (al-dunya), not "the imminent in cessation," or "the base," or "the one preceding the Hereafter," as the believers say; for all of that contradicts the apparent meaning, especially the latter.

(And we shall not be resurrected): That is, once this life departs from us entirely.