Waqeelihi ya rabbi inna haola-i qawmun la yu'minoon (surah Zukhruf: 88)

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

(43:88) We call to witness the cry of the Messenger: 'O Lord, these are a people not wont to believe!' *70

Wa qeelihee yaa Rabbi inna haa`ulaaa`i qawmul laa yu`minoon

*70) This is one of the most difficult verses of the Qur'an as it involves the complicated syntactic question of the kind of waw that has been used in wa qil-i-hi. From the translation of Shah 'Abdul Qadir it appears that the waw here is not conjunctive but for taking oath, and is related to fa-anna yu'fakun, and the pronoun in gili-hi turns to the Holy Prophet of Allah. Therefore, the verse means this: "By this saying of the Messenger: `O my Lord, these arc a people who would not believe'": they are so utterly deluded that although they themselves admit that Allah alone is their Creator and Creator of their gods, yet they abandon the Creator and persist in worshipping His creatures." The object of swearing by this saying of the Messenger is that the conduct of the people clearly shows that they are, in fact, stubborn, for the foolishness of their attitude is apparent from their own admission, and such an irrational attitude can be adopted only by such a person, who is resolved not to believe. In other words, the oath implies: `The Messenger has rightly said so: indeed these people world not believe,"