Tafsir of Hud 11:45

His calling to his Lord: It is his supplication to Him, which is his saying: "My Lord," along with what follows it, stemming from the requirement of His promise to save his family.

If you ask: If the "calling" is his saying "My Lord," then why is "He said, 'My Lord'" conjoined to "He called" with the particle fa (so/then)? I say: The "calling" here refers to the intention to call. If the calling itself were intended, it would have come without the fa, as in the verse: "When he called to his Lord a secret call, he said, 'My Lord...'" (Maryam: 3).

"Indeed, my son is of my family": Meaning, a part of my family, for he was his son from his own loins, or he was his stepson; in either case, he is a part of his family.

"And Your promise is the truth": Meaning, every promise You make is the established truth, in which there is no doubt regarding its fulfillment and completion. You promised me that You would save my family, so what is the matter with my son?

"And You are the wisest of the judges": Meaning, the most knowledgeable of judges and the most just, for no judge has superiority over another except through knowledge and justice. Many a person drowning in ignorance and injustice among those who hold the office of judge in your time has been titled "the most just of judges," and its meaning is "the wisest of judges." So, reflect and take heed. It is also permissible that it be derived from al-hikmah (wisdom), as one who judges is called a hakim, constructed from hikmah to denote attribution, just as one says dari' (armored) from dir' (armor), or ha'id (menstruating) and taliq (divorced) according to the school of al-Khalil.

"Indeed, he is a deed not righteous": This is a justification for why he is excluded from being of his family. It signals that the kinship of faith overrides the kinship of lineage. Your relative in faith and creed is your closest kin, even if he were Abyssinian, while your own kin by blood who is not of your faith is the furthest of the far from you. He made his very essence "a deed not righteous" as an exaggeration in condemning him, like the saying: "She is nothing but coming and going." It is also said the pronoun refers to Noah’s calling, meaning: "This calling of yours is a deed not righteous."

If you ask: Why was it not said, "He is a corrupt deed"? I say: When He excluded him from his family, He negated his attributes using the negation that preserves the word being negated, signaling that He only saved those of his family who were saved because of their righteousness, not because they were your family and kin. Since he lacked righteousness, your fatherhood did not benefit him, just as in the verse: "They were under two of Our righteous servants, but they betrayed them, so they did not avail them at all against Allah."

It is also recited as "He did a deed not righteous" (accusative). It is also recited as "Do not ask Me" (la tas'alni) with a kasra on the nun without the ya of the first person, and with the heavy nun with and without the ya. It means: Do not seek from Me a request when you do not know whether it is correct or incorrect, until you stand upon its essence. Mentioning the question is proof that the calling occurred before he drowned, when he feared for him.

If you ask: Why was his calling named a "question" (asking) when there was no question in it? I say: His supplication contained the meaning of a question even if he did not explicitly state it, for when he mentioned the promise of saving his family at the time his son was on the verge of drowning, he was seeking the fulfillment of the promise.

To ask about that whose essence is unknown is considered ignorance and foolishness, and He admonished him not to return to it or to similar acts of the ignorant.

If you ask: He had promised him to save his family, and he did not know that his son was not of them in terms of faith. When he was on the verge of drowning, the matter became confused for him, because the promise had preceded him, and he knew Allah to be Wise, for whom it is not permissible to do an ugly deed or break a promise. So he sought to remove the doubt, and seeking to remove doubt is a duty. Why then was he rebuked and his asking called ignorance? I say: Allah, the Exalted, had preceded the promise to save his family with the exception of those among them upon whom the word had already passed. It was incumbent upon him to believe that among his family were those deserving of punishment for being unrighteous, and that not all of them were to be saved. He should not have let a doubt cross his mind when his son was on the verge of drowning that he was among the "excepted" rather than the "excepted from." Thus, he was rebuked for being confused about that which should not have been confusing.

"He said, 'My Lord, I seek refuge in You from asking You that of which I have no knowledge. And unless You forgive me and have mercy upon me, I will be among the losers.'"