Tafsir Al-Jalalayn: Al-Ahqaf, Ayah 28
فَلَوْلَا نَصَرَهُمُ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ قُرْبَانًا ءَالِهَةًۢ ۖ بَلْ ضَلُّوا۟ عَنْهُمْ ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ إِفْكُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ
Then why did those they took besides Allah as deities by which to approach [Him] not aid them? But they had strayed from them. And that was their falsehood and what they were inventing.
Common Words
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فلولا1x
نصرهم1x
ٱلذين1x
ٱتخذوا1x
من1x
دون1x
ٱلله1x
قربانا1x
ءالهة1x
بل1x
ضلوا1x
عنهم1x
وذلك1x
إفكهم1x
وما1x
كانوا1x
يفترون1x
Other Scholars on This Ayah
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(Then why did those whom they had chosen for) worshipped as (gods as a way of approach (unto Allah)) as a means to bring them closer to Allah (not help them? (Nay, but they did fail them utterly) that which they worshipped is made void. (And (all) that was their lie, and what they used to invent) and what they used to lie about Allah.
Al-Jalalayn Commentary
So why did they not help them by averting from them the chastisement those whom they had chosen besides God that is to say other than Him as a means of nearness through whom they may secure nearness to God to be gods? alongside Him and these are the idols the first object of ittakhadhū ‘they had chosen’ is the omitted pronoun referred to by the relative clause alladhīna ‘those who …’ and it is hum ‘they’; qurbānan ‘nearness’ is the second object with ālihatan ‘gods’ as its substitution. Nay but they forsook them when the chastisement came down on them and that that is to say that choosing of theirs of idols as gods as a means of nearness to God was their lie and what they used to invent — the lies they used to speak mā ‘what’ either relates to the verbal action ‘their lying’ or it indicates a relative clause with the referential pronoun omitted this being fīhi ‘about’.