Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:4

{And no sign from the signs of their Lord comes to them} is a resumed statement, brought forth to clarify their disbelief in the signs of Allah Almighty and their total turning away from them, following the explanation of their disbelief in Allah Almighty, their turning away from some signs of monotheism, their doubting of the resurrection, and their turning away from some of its proofs. The turning away from addressing them is to signal that their previous turning away had reached a level that necessitated they no longer be addressed with speech, but rather that one should turn away from them. Their offenses are recounted to others to condemn them and to make their condition appear repulsive.

"Ma" (no) is a negator, and the present tense form is used to narrate a past state, as indicated by the scholar al-Baydawi—may Allah Almighty grant him goodness—or to indicate renewed continuity. The first "min" (from) is extra for the purpose of generalization or for emphasizing it, while the second is partitive and is attached to an omitted descriptor that is either genitive or nominative, serving as an adjective for "sign." Ibn al-Hajib considered it explanatory, arguing that if it were partitive, it would contradict the first being for generalization, as a sign that is generalized cannot be a part of the signs. This was countered by the claim that the generalization here applies to a sign characterized by its arrival, so even if it generalizes some of all the signs, his argument is not without scrutiny. The attribution of the signs to the Lord—attributed to their pronoun—is to magnify their significance, which entails terrifying what they have dared to do regarding them.

The intended meaning of these signs is either the revealed signs (the Quran) or the existential signs, which include miracles and other wondrous creations. "Coming," in the first interpretation, means revelation, and in the second, it means appearance, according to what has been said. It is understood from the words of some researchers that it signifies appearance absolutely, using it for the necessary implication of its meaning, which is "arrival"—a term not used for physical bodies except metaphorically, not by metonymy as has been claimed.

The gist of the meaning, according to the first interpretation, is: "No sign from among the Quranic signs of glorious significance comes down to them—among which are those signs that speak of what has been detailed regarding the wonders of Allah’s creation, and which inform of the flow of His divine decrees over all beings and the encompassment of His knowledge over all the states and deeds of the servants, which requires turning towards them and believing in them—except that they were turning away from them."

{Except that they were turning away from them} means they were not receptive to them nor concerned with them. According to the second interpretation: "No sign from the existential signs appears to them—among which are those mentioned regarding His glorious attributes, glorified and exalted be He, which bear witness to His oneness—except that they were abandoning the sound contemplation of them that would lead to faith in their Creator."

The origin of "turning away" (i'rad) is the turning of the face from something tangible, and its usage for lack of concern or abandonment of contemplation is metaphorical, according to what some have verified. The Sheikh al-Islam interpreted the turning away from the first aspect as that which occurred by way of denial and mockery. "An" (from) is attached to "mu'ridin" (turning away), and the fronting is to preserve the rhyme scheme.

The sentence after "illa" (except), as al-Karkhi said, is in the position of an accusative state (hal) from the object of "ta'tihim" (comes to them) or from its subject (which is qualified by a description, as has been said), and it contains a pronoun referring to each of them. Choosing this form over "a'radu 'anha" (they turned away from them)—as occurred similarly in His saying, "And if they see a sign, they turn away"—is to indicate their continuity in turning away in accordance with the continuity of the signs coming to them. The discourse contains a signal to the extremity of their obsession with misguidance, in that it signals that their turning away from whatever sign comes to them is as the word "lamma" (when) indicates in His saying, "When..."