Tafsir of Al-Anbiya' 21:57

Mu‘adh ibn Jabal recited it as bi-Allahi (By Allah). It is also read as tawallaw (you turn away), meaning tatawallaw (you will turn away). This is supported by His saying: "So they turned away from him, departing" (Al-Saffat: 90).

If you ask: What is the difference between the Ba (in bi-Allahi) and the Ta (in ta-Allahi)? I say: The Ba is the original form. The Ta is a substitute for the Waw which was itself substituted for the Ba. The Ta carries an additional meaning of astonishment (ta‘ajjub), as if he were marveling at how easily the plot was facilitated for him and how it came to pass, for this was a matter despaired of due to its difficulty and impossibility. By my life, such a feat is difficult and impossible in every age, especially in the time of Nimrod, given his tyranny, arrogance, the strength of his authority, and his desperation to defend his religion. But: When Allah facilitates the knot of a matter, it becomes easy.

It is narrated that Azar took him out on one of their festival days. They began at the house of the idols, entered it, prostrated to them, and placed food they had brought with them before them, saying, "By the time we return, the gods will have blessed our food." They left, and Abraham remained. He looked at the idols—there were seventy of them lined up, and there was a great idol facing the door made of gold, with two jewels in its eyes that shone at night. He broke them all with an axe in his hand, until none remained except the great one, upon whose neck he hung the axe.

Qatada said: He did this secretly from his people. It is narrated that one man heard him.

"Judhathan" (in fragments): Meaning cut into pieces, from the root jadhdh (to cut). It is read with both a kasra and a fatha on the jim. It is also read as judhadhan (plural of jadhidh) and judhadhan (plural of judhah).

He only spared the great one because he thought they would return only to it, given that they had heard him denounce their religion and insult their gods. Thus, he would silence them with the answer he gave: "Rather, this great one of theirs did it, so ask them." Al-Kalbi said: "Ask them" refers to the great one. The meaning is: perhaps they will return to it just as one returns to a scholar to solve problems, saying to it, "Why are these broken while you are intact, with the axe on your shoulder?"

He said this based on his assessment of them, having tested and tasted their stubbornness against their own intellects, their belief in their gods, and their veneration of them. Or, he said it—despite knowing they would not return to it—to mock them and expose their ignorance, implying that the standard for one who prostrates to an idol and deems it worthy of worship is that they should return to it to solve every problem.

If you ask: If they return to the idol due to their stubbornness against their own intellects and the deep-rooted nature of polytheism in their veins, what religious benefit is there in their returning to it, such that Abraham (peace be upon him) would make it his objective? I say: When they return to it, it becomes clear that it is incapable of benefiting or harming, and it becomes manifest that they are in a state of profound ignorance in their worship of it.

"They said, 'Who has done this to our gods? Indeed, he is of the wrongdoers.'"