Qul ya ayyuha annasu in kuntum fee shakkin min deenee fala aAAbudu (surah Yunus: 104)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(10:104) (O Prophet!) Tell them: *106 'Men! If you are still in doubt concerning my religion, know that I do not serve those whom you serve beside Allah. I only serve Allah Who will cause (all of) you to die. *107 I have been commanded to be one of those who believe,

Qul yaaa ayyuhan naasu in kuntum fee shakkkim min deenee falaa a`budul lazeena ta`budoona min doonil laahi wa laakin a`budul laahal lazee yatawaffaakum wa umirtu an akoona minal mu`mineen

*106). The theme broached at the beginning of (his discourse is now resumed at the point of its conclusion. (Cf. verses 1-10.)
*107). The Qur'anic expression *****_ literally means 'who causes you to die'. This literal rendering, however, does not convey the spirit of the statement made here. For what is being said amounts to the following: God is the One Who has the power over your lives and Who enjoys such absolute control over you that as long as He wishes you to remain alive, you live, and no sooner than He signals you to surrender your lives to Him, you do so. It is Him alone that I worship, and it is to His service and obedience that I am bound.
In this context, it should be borne in mind that the Makkan polytheists believed, as do the present-day polytheists, that only God, the Lord of the universe, has the absolute power to cause death, a power that no one else shares with Him. They also believed that even those whom they associated with God in His attributes and authority were all too helpless to avert their own death. It is to be noted that of the numerous divine attributes, this particular attribute of God - viz. that He alone has the power to cause death - is mentioned here alongside the doctrine that men ought to give themselves in total devotion and service to God alone. The reason for it seems to be that in addition to being the statement of an important fact, it also provides a rationale for exclusively serving and worshipping God.
In other words, the statement of the Prophet here amounts to saying that he is exclusively devoted to the service of God since the latter alone has all power over life and death. Conversely, why should anyone devote himself to worshipping others who, let alone having power over the life and death of others, do not have power even over their own life and death? The rhetorical force of the verse is also significant, for instead of saying that 'He has power over my death', the verse says: 'He has power over your death'. Thus one simple sentence pithily embraces three things - the thesis, its supporting argument, and the exhortation to accept that thesis. Had it been said that: T only serve Allah Who has power over my death', its logical implication would have been that in view of the fact that He had control over the Prophet's life and death, the latter should have served only Allah. However, it has been said that: 'I only serve Allah Who has power over your death', in this form, the implication of the verse is that not only the Prophet but also others should serve only God and this even though they had succumbed to the error of serving others than God.