Surah Ar-Ra'd (13) — Ayah 33

(Ayah33) ➊ {اَفَمَنْ هُوَ قَآىِٕمٌ عَلٰى كُلِّ نَفْسٍۭ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ :} Here again Allah Almighty has mentioned the proof of His oneness and the refutation of shirk. By {’’ قَآىِٕمٌ ‘‘} is meant here the watcher and protector. {’’ اَفَمَنْ هُوَ قَآىِٕمٌ عَلٰى كُلِّ نَفْسٍۭ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ ‘‘} is the subject, its predicate is omitted and that is {’’ كَمَنْ لَيْسَ كَذٰلِكَ ‘‘}, and this omitted predicate is self-evident from the earlier and later parts of the discourse. That is, is the true deity, who is the watcher and protector of every soul at every moment and in every state, and is fully aware of its every deed, whether good or bad, like your false deities who are completely devoid of this attribute? For this attribute of Allah Almighty, see Surah Al-An'am (59), Hud (6), and Ayat al-Kursi, etc.
➋ {وَ جَعَلُوْا لِلّٰهِ شُرَكَآءَ قُلْ سَمُّوْهُمْ:} In the previous sentence, Allah Almighty was mentioned with the pronoun { ’’ هُوَ ‘‘}, here instead of the pronoun, the name of Allah Almighty is mentioned to show the ugliness of their shirk, that how unjust they are that they have made partners of { ’’الله‘‘ }, who can have no partner at all. Say to those who make partners, just tell us the names of these partners, bring them forward. Even if you hypothetically name them, you will name such entities that are merely imaginary, in reality, they have no existence at all, they themselves are dependent on others for their existence and survival, they have no power over their own benefit or harm nor anyone else's, they cannot even create a fly. Then how ignorant and foolish it is to mention their names as partners of Allah.
➌ { اَمْ تُنَبِّـُٔوْنَهٗ بِمَا لَا يَعْلَمُ فِي الْاَرْضِ:} Or do you inform Him of something He does not know in the earth, whereas He knows every inch of the earth, so if these partners existed anywhere, He would surely know them. According to this interpretation, in { ’’ لَا يَعْلَمُ ‘‘ } the pronoun of { ’’هُوَ‘‘ } will be for Allah Almighty, and it is also possible that in {’’ لَا يَعْلَمُ ‘‘} the pronoun is for {’’ مَا‘‘}, and the meaning would be: do you inform Allah Almighty about the deity-ship of these lifeless idols who have no knowledge at all? The author of Ruh al-Ma'ani writes, the purpose here is to negate the existence of any other deities besides Allah Almighty in the heavens and the earth, therefore the restriction of {’’ فِي الْاَرْضِ ‘‘} is only mentioned because the disbelievers believed that these partners of Allah are on the earth. (Ruh, Ibn Kathir)
➍ {اَمْ بِظَاهِرٍ مِّنَ الْقَوْلِ :} Or is it a superficial utterance, which you are only saying with your mouths, even you do not believe in your hearts that there is any partner of Allah, because if you reflect, human nature also does not accept any partner for Allah.
➎ { بَلْ زُيِّنَ لِلَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوْا مَكْرُهُمْ :} By plotting is meant disbelief and fabricating false arguments for it and deceiving people to make them polytheists. "Made attractive"—there are many things that make it attractive, so the passive verb is used, for example: 1. The evil consequences of their bad deeds 2. Carnal desires 3. Satan 4. The seal placed on their hearts by Allah Almighty due to their wickedness, in short, many things became the cause of making their disbelief attractive.
➏ {وَ صُدُّوْا عَنِ السَّبِيْلِ … : ’’ مِنْ هَادٍ ‘‘} That is, Allah Almighty has not written guidance in their fate. Now how can such people come to the straight path?