ﱱ ﱲ ﱳ ﱴ ﱵ ﱶ ﱷ ﱸ ﱹ ﱺ ﱻ ﱼ ﱽ ﱾ ﱿ ﲀ ﲁ ﲂ ﲃ ﲄ ﲅ ﲆ ﲇ ﲈ ﲉ ﲊ ﲋ ﲌ ﲍ
[More precisely], is He [not best] who created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you rain from the sky, causing to grow thereby gardens of joyful beauty which you could not [otherwise] have grown the trees thereof? Is there a deity with Allah? [No], but they are a people who ascribe equals [to Him].
Tafsir
Verse range: 27:60
"Or who created..."
If you ask: What is the difference between the am (or) in "Or what you associate" and the am in "Or who created"?
I say: The former is conjunctive (muttasilah), for the meaning is: "Which of the two is better?" The latter is disjunctive (munqati'ah), meaning "Nay, and [is] the hamza." When the Almighty said, "Is Allah better, or the gods they associate?" He followed it with, "Nay, is He who created the heavens and the earth better?" This is to confirm to them that He who is capable of creating the world is better than inanimate objects that are capable of nothing.
Al-A'mash read it as a-man (with a light nun). The interpretation is to make it a substitute for "Allah," as if He said: "Is He who created the heavens and the earth better, or what you associate?"
If you ask: What is the point of shifting the narrative from the third person to the first person in His saying, "So We caused to grow"?
I say: It is to emphasize that the action is exclusive to His Essence, and to signal that the causing of gardens—varying in species, colors, tastes, scents, and forms, despite their beauty and splendor—to grow from a single water is something no one is capable of except Him alone. Do you not see how He reinforced the meaning of exclusivity with His saying, "It is not for you to cause their trees to grow"? The meaning of kawn (being) here is inbigha' (appropriateness/possibility). He meant that such a thing is impossible for anyone else. Likewise, His saying, "Nay, they are..." after addressing them, is more effective in proving their opinion wrong.
Al-Hadiqah (garden): An orchard surrounded by a wall, derived from al-ihdaq, which is encompassing. It is said [it is feminine] because the meaning is "a group of gardens of splendor," just as one says, "The women (an-nisa') went (dhahabat)."
Al-Bahjah (splendor): Beauty, because the viewer is gladdened (yabtahiju) by it.
"With Allah? Nay..." Is there another besides Him to be paired with Him and made a partner to Him?
It was read as: A-ilahun ma'a Allah (Is there a god with Allah?), meaning: Do you call upon, or do you associate? You may pronounce both hamzas clearly, or insert a vowel between them, or pronounce the second one between-between.
"They equate": They equate others with Him, or they deviate from the truth, which is monotheism.
"Or who made the earth a stable ground, and made within it rivers, and made for it mountains, and made between the two seas a barrier? Is there a god with Allah? Nay, but most of them do not know."
