Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:90

(Those), meaning the prophets mentioned—as has been narrated from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), as-Suddi, and Ibn Zayd. It has also been said that the reference is to the believers who are entrusted [with the trust], and this is narrated from al-Hasan and Qatadah, though the deficiency in that view is not hidden. It is the subject (mubtada’), and its predicate (khabar) is His statement, the Exalted: (whom Allah has guided), meaning: We have guided them to the truth and the straight path. The shift [of pronoun] to the Majestic Name is to indicate the cause of the guidance and to preserve the one who is guided, relying on the extreme manifestness [of the Guidance].

(So by their guidance, take an example), meaning: Make their guidance the exclusive object of imitation, and make imitation restricted to it. The intended meaning of "their guidance," according to a group, is their path in faith in Allah—the Exalted—His oneness, and the fundamentals of religion, rather than the secondary laws (shara’i’) that are subject to abrogation, for after abrogation, they no longer remain "guidance," and they [the prophets] themselves differ regarding them; thus, it is not possible to follow all of them in that. The meaning of the command to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) to follow that [guidance] is to adopt it, not because it is the path of those dignitaries, but because it is the path of reason and revelation. In this lies an exaltation of them, establishing that their path is the truth, which conforms to the evidence of reason and hearing.

With this, the second Allamah answered the objection raised: that what is obligatory in beliefs and the fundamentals of religion is to follow the evidence of reason and revelation, so it is not permissible—especially for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)—to imitate others in what constitutes the meaning of his command to follow. It was also objected that his belief (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) at that time was not due to their belief, but due to the evidence; therefore, there is no meaning to the command to follow that. It was further objected that his adoption of the fundamentals of religion was already realized before the revelation of the verse, so there is no meaning in the command to adopt what has already been adopted—unless it is interpreted as a command to remain steadfast upon it.

Qutb al-Razi, in his marginalia on al-Kashshaf, established that the imitation commanded is necessarily restricted to virtuous character and perfect attributes, such as forbearance, patience, asceticism, abundance of gratitude, humility, and the like. In the verse, there is evidence that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is definitively superior to them, for it entails that Allah—the Exalted—guided those prophets (peace be upon them) to virtuous character and attributes of perfection. And since the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was commanded to follow their collective guidance, it is impossible—given his infallibility—to say that he did not comply. Therefore, it must be said that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) complied and brought all of that, joining all those virtuous characters that were scattered among them; thus, he gathered within himself the traits of perfection that were divided among them. Consequently, he is definitively superior to them all, just as he is superior to each one of them individually. This is a sound deduction.

Some have used this verse as evidence that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was bound by the laws of those who came before him, but there is no substance to this. In the command for him (upon him be prayer and peace) to follow them, and not the other way around, lies that which is not hidden to those of insight, indicating the loftiness of his station (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).

The "ha" in (iqtadih) is the "ha" of silence (ha al-sakt), which is added in the pause; it is also [pronounced] with a sukun to treat the continuation as a pause. Ibn Kathir, Nafi’, Abu ‘Amr, and ‘Asim recited it as such. Hamzah and al-Kisa’i drop the "ha" in continuation specifically. Ibn ‘Amir read it (iqtadihi) with a kasrah on the "ha" without full elongation—which the reciters call ikhtilas (brief sound)—and this is the narration of Hisham from him. Others narrated its elongation, meaning its kasrah and connecting it with a ya. Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid claimed that the reading of Ibn ‘Amir is an error, arguing that the "ha" is a "ha" of pausing and thus cannot be vocalized in any state, and that it is only mentioned to reveal the vowel of what precedes it. Abu ‘Ali al-Farisi refuted this, stating that the "ha" is a pronoun for the verbal noun (masdar), not a "ha" of silence; meaning: "Follow the following (of them)." As Abu al-Baqa’ said, an example is his [the poet’s] statement: “This is Suraqah studying the Quran, and the man, at the wish of the one he meets, finds it.” The "ha" therein is the pronoun of the "studying," not an object, because "studying" has already taken "the Quran" as its object.

Some said that the "ha" of silence may be vocalized by analogy to the "ha" of the pronoun, and the Arabs frequently apply to a thing the rule of what resembles it. It has been narrated in the statement of Abu al-Tayyib: “My heart burns for what his heart is cold [towards],” with both the damma and kasrah on the "ha," on the basis that it is a "ha" of silence likened to the "ha" of the pronoun, and thus vocalized. The author of al-Durr al-Masun deemed it better to consider the kasrah as being for the avoidance of two sukins meeting, not because of resemblance to the pronoun, because its "ha" is not given a kasrah after an alif, so how could it be done for what resembles it? The Imam [Fakhr al-Din al-Razi] claimed that the retention of the "ha" in continuation is to follow the Imam [in recitation], but one should not follow him in this, as it implies that reading without transmission is imitation of the script, which is a delusion.

(Say: I do not ask of you), meaning: I do not request from you, (for it), meaning: for the Quran or for the preaching—for the context of the speech points to both, even if they were not explicitly mentioned—(any payment), meaning: any wage, neither little nor more, just as the prophets before me (peace be upon them) did not ask their nations. It is said: This is among the things we were commanded to follow from their guidance (peace be upon them), and this is clear according to what Qutb said, for refraining from taking a wage in return for kindness is among noble character and good deeds. As for the opinion of those who restricted the aforementioned guidance to the fundamentals of religion, it has been said that there is a contradiction between saying this and saying that it refers to [preaching]. It was answered that deriving the imitation of fundamentals from the first command does not negate that he (upon him be prayer and peace) be commanded to imitate another matter, such as preaching. The prepositional phrase was placed forward there only to negate the following of the path of others in any other matter. The verse has been used as evidence that it is permissible to accept payment for teaching and conveying rulings, and there is a lengthy, well-known discussion among the jurists on this that is beyond need of explanation.

(It is but a reminder), meaning: a remembrance; it is a verbal noun, and construing it as the pronoun for the Quran is for emphasis, and there is no need to interpret it as "a reminder" (mudhakkir), (for the worlds), all of them; it is not restricted to one people to the exclusion of others. The verse has been used as evidence for the universality of his mission (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).