Tafsir

إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّـهِ حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ (Surely, you and whatever you worship other than Allah are the fuel of Jahannam - 21:98) Here a question may arise as to the application of this verse to the case of Sayyidna Masih (علیہ السلام) ، Sayyidna ` Uzair (علیہ السلام) and angels who were also worshipped by some people. According to account given by Qurtubi in his Tafsir, this issue was adequately resolved by Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ who wondered that there is a verse in the Qur'an about which people have reservations, yet they do not question him about it. He went on to say that this may be due to the fact that either the people have found a convincing answer to their doubts or that they are totally indifferent and do not consider the matter important enough for any kind of investigation. When people asked him which particular verse he had in mind, he recited the verse إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ and went on to say that when this verse was revealed, it made the unbelievers of Quraish very angry because they felt that it offended their gods.

So they approached Ibn al-Ziba` ra (A scholar of the scriptures) and complained to him about it. He said that if he were present there, he would have given them a reply which would have confounded all of them. Pressed further he said that he would have asked them what they thought about Sayyidna Masih (علیہ السلام) and about Sayyidna ` Uzair (علیہ السلام) ، who were worshipped by the Christians and the Jews respectively (meaning whether they too مَعَاذَ اللہ would be sent to Hell). The unbelievers of Quraish were delighted to hear this and were sure that Muhammad ﷺ would have no answer to their question.