'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (say) o muhammad, to 'uyaynah and his folk: (shall we cry) do you ask us to worship (instead of unto allah, unto that which neither profiteth us) if we worshipped it, neither in this world nor in the hereafter (nor hurteth us) if we did not worship it, neither in this world nor in the next, (and shall we turn back) to idolatry (after allah hath guided us) has honoured us with his religion, (like) if we were to do so, we would be like (one bewildered) erred from guidance (whom the devils have infatuated) lured down (in the earth, who hath companions) 'uyaynah has friends, the prophetic companions (who invite him to the guidance) to islam ((saying): come unto us) obey us? while 'uyaynah was inviting them to idolatry. it is also said that this verse was revealed about abu bakr and his son 'abd al-rahman. prior to embracing islam, 'abd al-rahman used to invite his parents to his religion. allah said to his prophet: tell abu bakr to say to his son 'abd al-rahman: are you asking us o 'abd al-rahman, to worship, instead of allah, that which does not benefit us in this world in our provision or livelihood or in the hereafter if we were to worship it, nor hurt us, if we did not worship it? are you really asking us to return to our old religion after allah has guided us to the religion of muhammad (pbuh). if we were to do as you ask us, we would be like 'abd al-rahman who erred and whom the devils lured away from allah's religion. the parents of 'abd al-rahman-abu bakr and his wife-invited him to islam and repentance, while he invited them to idolatry. his parents say to him: obey us and embrace islam. (say) o muhammad: (lo! the guidance of allah is guidance) the religion of allah is islam and our qiblah is the ka'bah, (and we are ordered to surrender) to make our worship and confession of allah's divine oneness sincere (to the lord of the worlds) to allah, lord of the worlds,
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : say: ‘shall we call upon, shall we worship, instead of god, that which neither profits us, if we worship them, nor hurts us, if we neglect [to worship] them — these are the idols; and so be turned back, [and so] return to idolatry, after god has guided us, to islam? — like one whom the devils have lured, led astray, in the earth, bewildered, confused, not knowing where to go (hayrān, ‘bewildered’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ [of istahwat-hu, ‘whom they have lured’]); he has companions, a group, who call him to guidance, that is to say, [they are there] in order to guide him to the [right] path, saying to him: “come to us!”’, but he does not respond to them, and he perishes (the interrogative statement is meant as a disavowal; the comparative statement [beginning with ka’lladhī, ‘like one whom’] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject [of the verb] nuraddu, ‘be turned back’). say: ‘truly, god’s guidance, which is islam, is [the true] guidance, everything else being error, and we have been commanded to submit to the lord of the worlds,
