Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Or have they taken besides Him allies? But Allah is the Protector, and He gives life to the dead, and He is over all things competent.”

The Shaykh : This “or” is disconnected, and the disconnected “or” means “but” and the interrogative hamza. There is also a connected “or,” which occurs between two opposing things and means “or.” An example of that is: This “or” is called connected because it is between two opposing things, and because it means “or.” In non-Qur’anic speech, if “or” were placed in place of “or,” the speech would be correct. So we say: “Or” can be disconnected and it can be connected. The difference between them is that the connected “or” means “or,” and the disconnected “or” means “but” and the interrogative hamza. Second: the connected “or” is between two opposing things, and the disconnected “or” is the opposite of that. Here Allah the Exalted says: There are not two opposing things in it, so it is disconnected, meaning “but” and the hamza. The pronoun refers to the polytheists. The pronoun refers to the Lord, Mighty and Majestic.