Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:32

After the Glorified and Exalted has established in the preceding context that there is another life beyond this worldly life, in which they shall encounter the calamities that they encounter, He proceeds to describe the reality of these two lives themselves. Some have posited this as a response to their statement: "There is nothing but our worldly life," though this interpretation is distant. In any case, the intent is: The deeds of this worldly life, specific to it, are nothing but play and amusement in their lack of benefit and permanence. By this estimation, as many have noted, the righteous deeds within it—such as worship and what is necessary for livelihood—are excluded. The statement is an eloquent metaphor, even if one does not estimate an omitted word [such as "deeds"], treating the world itself as play and amusement by way of hyperbole, as in the saying: "It is nothing but coming and going."

La’b (play) and Lahw (amusement), according to what is in Durrat al-Tanzil, both share the meaning of preoccupation with what does not concern the wise or what is not of importance to them, whether it be of whims or mirth, regardless of whether it is forbidden or otherwise. A distinction is made between them in that la’b is what is intended for the acceleration of pleasure and relaxation, while lahw is everything that preoccupies one with whims and mirth, even if that was not the primary intent. When lahw is used absolutely, it is said to refer to the pursuit of pleasure with women, as in the line: "She assumed, due to the politics of the day, that I have aged, and that amusement does not befit the likes of me."

Qatadah said: Lahw in the dialect of Yemen refers to a woman. It is also said: La’b is the seeking of pleasure and joy in ways that are not appropriate to be sought, while lahw is the diverting of one's anxieties with things that are not suitable for such diversion.

It is also said: Every occupation one turns toward necessitates turning away from everything else, for the One who is not preoccupied by one affair over another is Allah Almighty. Thus, when one turns toward falsehood, it necessitates turning away from the Truth; therefore, turning toward falsehood is la’b, and turning away from the Truth is lahw.

Others have said: A wise person preoccupied with something must prioritize it over others; if he prioritizes it without abandoning the other, it is la’b, but if he abandons and forgets the other for its sake, it is lahw.

The author of al-Durra, after enumerating these views, explained the secret behind placing la’b before lahw when they are paired as they are here, and delaying it [placing lahw first] as in [Surah] al-Ankabut: When this discourse is directed toward refuting the disbelievers regarding their denial of the Hereafter and the aforementioned restriction [of life to this world], and given that their belief, due to their ignorance, contains nothing but the hastened pleasures of the ephemeral world’s decorations, la’b (which signifies that) is mentioned first and completed with lahw. Or, because they sought joy in it—and their ambition was fixed upon it, and the diversion of anxiety is a necessary consequence—that which was mentioned first was put first. Or, because they turned toward falsehood in most of their sayings and deeds, that which signifies that was put first. Or, because the act of approaching precedes abandonment and forgetting, la’b was placed before lahw in observation of the external order.

As for [Surah] al-Ankabut, the context there is to mention the brevity of worldly life in comparison to the Hereafter and its devaluation relative to it. Thus, the demonstrative pronoun used there denotes devaluation, followed by His saying: "Indeed, the home of the Hereafter—that is the life." Preoccupation with lahw is what causes time to pass quickly, and it is more deeply involved in this than la’b is. The days of pleasure became as he said: "And a night of those blooming nights, that was nothing but twilight and dawn." This is how these differences are applied, the details of which are in al-Durra, as stated by Mawlana Shihab al-Din, so let it be understood.

(And the home of the Hereafter) which is the place of the other life (is better for those who fear) disbelief and disobedience, because its benefits are free from harms and pains, and its pleasures are safe from termination. (Do you not then reason) this, so that you may fear what you are upon of disbelief and disobedience? The fa (then/so) is for conjunction with an omitted clause; i.e., "Are you heedless, or do you not reflect, so you do not reason?"

Although it would have been more apparent to say, as al-Tayyibi suggested: "And the home of the Hereafter is nothing but seriousness and truth," to correspond with "And the worldly life is nothing but play and amusement," instead, He placed (better for those who fear) in its stead, establishing the effect in the place of the cause.

In al-Kashf, it is stated: This contains evidence that everything other than the deeds of the righteous is la’b and lahw. For when He placed the Home of the Hereafter in opposition to the worldly life, and judged the deeds corresponding to them as la’b and lahw, it is known that the two sets of deeds correspond according to the correspondence of what they are attributed to—namely, the world and the Hereafter. Thus, once the quality of being "better" is restricted to the righteous, it follows that what is outside of their deeds is not part of the deeds of the Hereafter at all; hence, it is la’b and lahw that yields no benefit.

Ibn ‘Amir recited (wa-dar al-akhirah) with idafah (genitive construction), which is the attribution of the descriptor to the described. The Kufans permitted this, and those who did not permit it interpreted it as an estimation: "the home of the latter creation," or by treating the descriptor as a noun. Ibn Kathir and others recited (ta‘qilun) with the [prefix] ya, with the pronoun referring to the disbelievers who say, "There is nothing but our worldly life." It is also said that it refers to the righteous, and the interrogation is for the sake of alerting and inciting reflection.