Tafsir of Az-Zukhruf 43:33

{لبيوتهم} (For their houses): This is a badal ishtimal (substitution of inclusion) for the phrase {لمن يكفر} (for those who disbelieve). It is also possible that the two lams are like the two lams in your saying: "I gifted him a garment for his shirt."

Readings:

• (Suqufan): With a fatha on the sin and a sukun on the qaf.
• (Suqufan): With a damma on the sin and a sukun on the qaf.
• (Suqufan): With a damma on the sin (as a plural of saqf, like rahn and ruhun).
• Al-Farra’ says: It is the plural of saqifah, and suqufan (with two fathas) is as if it were a dialectal variant of saqf and suquf, like ma‘arij and ma‘arij.

{معارج} (Stairways): The plural of mi‘raj, or a collective noun for mi‘raj. They are the ascents to the upper chambers.

{عليها يظهرون} (Upon which they ascend): Meaning, upon the stairways, they ascend to the roofs and climb them, as in the saying: "He was unable to ascend it."

{سررا} (Couches): With a fatha on the ra due to the heaviness of two dammas alongside the doubled letters.

{لما متاع الحياة} (Is not the enjoyment of life): The lam is the fariqah (distinguishing particle) between the lightened inna and the negative nafi.

• It is also read with a kasra on the lam, meaning: "For that which is the enjoyment of life," similar to the Almighty’s saying: {مثلا ما بعوضة} (an example, that of a mosquito).
• It is also read as lamma (with a shadda), meaning "except," with inna being negative.
• It is also read as illa (except).
• It is also read as: wa ma kullu dhalika illa (and all of that is nothing but...).

Exegesis: When He said: {خير مما يجمعون} (better than what they accumulate), He belittled and diminished the status of the worldly life. He followed this with what confirms the insignificance of the world in His sight, saying: {ولولا أن يكون الناس أمة واحدة} (And were it not that the people would become one community).

Meaning: Were it not for the aversion to them gathering upon disbelief and uniting upon it, We would have—due to the worthlessness of the adornment of worldly life in Our sight—granted the disbelievers roofs, stairways, doors, and couches, all made of silver and zukhruf (gold/adornment). We would have granted them zukhruf, meaning: decoration of every kind. Zukhruf is decoration and gold.

It is possible that the origin is: "a roof of silver and zukhruf," meaning: some of it is silver and some of it is gold. Thus, it is in the accusative case as a conjunction to the place of {من فضة} (of silver). In this meaning is the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): "If the world were worth the wing of a mosquito to Allah, He would not have given the disbeliever a drink of water from it."

Question: If He did not expand [the wealth] for the disbelievers because of the temptation that such expansion would lead to—namely, people uniting upon disbelief due to their love for the world and their obsession with it—then why did He not expand it for the Muslims so that people would unite upon Islam?

Answer: Expansion for them is also a corruption, because it leads to people entering Islam for the sake of the world, and entering the religion for the sake of the world is the religion of the hypocrites. Therefore, the wisdom lies in what He has ordained: He placed both rich and poor in both groups, and poverty prevails over wealth.

{ومن يعش عن ذكر الرحمان نقيض له شيطانا فهو له قرين * وإنهم ليصدونهم عن السبيل ويحسبون أنهم مهتدون * حتى إذا جآءنا قال ياليت بيني وبينك بعد المشرقين فبئس القرين * ولن ينفعكم اليوم إذ ظلمتم أنكم فى العذاب مشتركون}

(And whoever is blinded from the remembrance of the Most Merciful - We appoint for him a devil, and he is to him a companion. And indeed, they avert them from the way while they think that they are [rightly] guided. Until, when he comes to Us, he says, "Oh, I wish there was between me and you the distance between the two easts," - how wretched a companion. And never will it benefit you today, when you have wronged, that you are sharing in the punishment.)