Tafseer of The Spider · Al-Ankaboot · 29:42
Indeed, Allah knows whatever thing they call upon other than Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ (42) (Indeed, Allah knows whatever thing they call upon besides Him; and He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (29:42))
The reciters differed over the reading of His saying: إِنَّ اللهَ يَعْلَمُ ما تَدْعُونَ. Most of the reciters of the cities read it تَدْعُونَ with the tāʾ, in the sense of an address directed to the polytheists (mushrikīn) of Quraysh: إِنَّ اللهَ (Indeed, Allah), O people, يَعْلَمُ مَا تَدْعُونَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيءٍ (knows whatever thing you call upon besides Him). But Abū ʿAmr read it: إِنَّ اللهَ يَعْلَمُ ما يَدْعُونَ with the yāʾ, in the sense of a report about the (former) peoples: indeed, Allah knows whatever thing these whom We destroyed of the peoples call upon مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيء (besides Him).
And the correct reading therein, according to us, is the reading of the one who reads it with the tāʾ, because—if it were a report about the peoples whom Allah mentioned that He destroyed—the wording would have been: "indeed, Allah knows what they used to call upon," for those people were no longer alive at the time of the descent of this report upon Allah's Prophet, since they had already perished and vanished. For one says إِنَّ اللهَ يَعْلَمُ ما تَدْعُونَ only when one intends thereby a report about the living, not about those who have already perished.
The explanation of the wording is thus, now that the matter is as we have described: إِنَّ اللهَ يَعْلَمُ (Indeed, Allah knows), O people, the condition of that which you worship مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيء (besides Him of any thing), and that it does not benefit you and does not harm you if Allah wills to inflict evil upon you, and it averts nothing for you. Indeed, its likeness, in the smallness of its benefit to you, is like the likeness of the spider's web in its benefit to it.
And His saying وَهُوَ العَزِيزُ الحَكِيمُ, he says: and Allah is the Almighty in His retribution against whoever is ungrateful to Him and whoever ascribes associates (shirk) in His worship besides Him. So fear, O you who ascribe associates to Him, His punishment by believing in Him before it descends upon you, just as it descended upon the peoples whose stories Allah has told you in this surah. For if His punishment descends upon you, your protectors, whom you have taken as protectors besides Him, will not benefit you, just as the protectors of those before you, whom they had taken besides Him, did not benefit them—the All-Wise in His governance of His creation; He destroys whoever deserves destruction at the moment when his destruction is an improvement, and He grants respite to whoever of His creatures is ungrateful to Him, whose destruction He defers, until the moment in which lies the improvement in their destruction.
