Tafsir of Al-Mulk 67:20

"Or who is this that is an army for you to aid you besides the Most Merciful?" The attachment—according to many—is to His saying, Glorified is He: "Do they not see the birds?" In al-Irshad, it is stated that this is a rebuke to them by negating that they have any helper other than Allah Almighty, as indicated by the allusion to the title of 'The Most Merciful' (al-Rahmaniyah). This is supported by His saying: "None holds them [aloft] except the Most Merciful," or a helper against His torment, which is more appropriate to the subsequent context of "the withholding of His provision," similar to His saying: "Or do they have gods that can protect them against Us?" The meaning encompasses both, except that the interrogation there is directed at the existence of the protector itself and its realization, whereas here it is directed at specifying the helper, in order to rebuke them by demonstrating their inability to name one.

'Am' (Or) is munqati'ah (disjunctive), estimated as 'bal' (nay/rather) to transition from rebuking them for neglecting to contemplate what they observe of the states of birds—which signal the wonders of the effects of Allah’s power—to the rebuke mentioned. The shifting of pronouns (from the second to the third person) serves to intensify this. There is no way to assume an interrogative hamza with it, because after it is the interrogative 'man' (who), and an interrogation does not enter upon another interrogation in their known conventions.

'Man' is the subject (mubtada') and 'hadha' is its predicate (khabar), and the relative pronoun here carries the well-known possibilities found in such constructions. The sentence "aids you" is an adjective for "army," considering its wording. "Besides the Most Merciful," under the first interpretation, is either a state (hal) of the subject of "aids you," or an adjective for its source (masdar). Under the second interpretation, it is connected to "aids you," as in His saying: "Who would aid me against Allah?"

The meaning is: Who is this insignificant one, who in your estimation is an army for you, that will aid you—surpassing the aid of the Most Merciful, or aiding you with an aid occurring outside of His, the Almighty's, aid, or aiding you against a torment occurring from the presence of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic?

His saying: "The disbelievers are not but in delusion," is a parenthetical sentence confirming what preceded it, reproaching them for the extreme misguidance they are in. That is, they are not—in their belief that they are preserved from calamities by the protection of their gods rather than by His, the Almighty’s, protection alone, and that their gods protect them from the severity of Allah—but in great delusion and obscene error caused by Satan. They have nothing in this that can be considered significant at all. The shift to the third person serves to signal that their state warrants turning away from them and explaining their ugliness to others. The use of the explicit noun (the disbelievers) in place of the pronoun (they) is to disparage them for their disbelief and to cite it as the reason for their delusion.