يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُلُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا رَزَقْنَٰكُمْ وَٱشْكُرُوا۟ لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ
“O ye who believe! Eat of the good things wherewith We have provided you, and render thanks to Allah if it is (indeed) He Whom ye worship.” — M. M. Pickthall
Zemahşerî12. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Zemahşerî, the expression in this verse means 'you obey'; or the claim of the polytheists that they worship Allah through idols is based on the notion that these idols are intercessors with Allah. Then Allah, by enumerating the things He has forbidden to them, prohibited them from determining halal and haram according to their own desires and ignorance, without following what was legislated through the tongues of the prophets.
ثم عدد عليهم محرمات الله ، ونهاهم عن تحريمهم وتحليلهم بأهوائهم وجهالاتهم ، دون اتباع ما شرع الله على لسان أنبيائه
Fahreddin er-Râzî12-13. c.✓ Citation verified
According to this exegete, the expression 'If you truly worship' can be explained in several ways: knowing Allah is expressed through worship (attributing the work to its cause); or the meaning is 'if you wish to worship Allah, then thank Him, for gratitude is the foremost of worships'; or it means you affirm that you have dedicated yourselves to worshipping the One who gave these blessings. Furthermore, the exegete gives the example of the Sabians who prostrate to the sun, stating that it is forbidden for people to adopt an intermediary/qibla to reach Allah, because making a sublime body like the sun into a qibla can create doubt about divinity in minds, whereas such a concern does not exist in stone (the Black Stone in the Kaaba).
فعبر عن معرفة الله تعالى بعبادته ، إطلاقا لإسم الأثر على المؤثر وثانيها : معناه : إن كنتم تريدون أن تعبدوا الله فاشكروه ، فإن الشكر رأس العبادات
Kurtubî13. c.✓ Citation verified
In this text, Kurtubî indicates that the meaning of the word gratitude has been mentioned before and does not see the need to explain the matter again in the context of this verse. Furthermore, the text makes a connection with the related subject by referring to the expression 'Indeed, He has only forbidden to you' from verse 173 of al-Baqarah.
تقدم معنى الشكر فلا معنى للإعادة
İbn Kesîr14. c.✓ Citation verified
Ibn Kesîr states that after Allah presents His provision to His servants as a grace and instructs them to eat from what is halal and pure, He has only forbidden them from carrion (dead animals). Carrion encompasses every animal that has died on its own, been strangled, struck, fallen to death, gored, or torn apart by a predator, and has not been slaughtered according to the proper method. However, the majority has made an exception for sea creatures from this ruling.
ولما امتن تعالى عليهم برزقه وأرشدهم إلى الأكل من طيبه ذكر أنه لم يحرم عليهم من ذلك إلا الميتة وهي التي تموت حتف أنفها من غير تذكية وسواء كانت منخنقة أو موقوذة أو متردية أو نطيحة أو عدا عليها السبع وقد خصص الجمهور من ذلك ميتة البحر
Beydâvî13. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Beydâwî, after Allah has expanded His provision for people and made the things on earth halal, this verse commands the believers in particular to prefer what is pure/good from their sustenance and to fulfill the rights of this provision (to be grateful for it). The command of gratitude is attached to worship as a condition for the completion of worship; that is, true worship is only completed through gratitude, and when gratitude is absent, worship is considered incomplete or nonexistent. In this context, Beydâwî states that worship dedicated solely to Allah necessitates being grateful to Him; otherwise, it would mean the servant does not recognize Him as the sole provider of blessings.
فالمعلق بفعل العبادة هو الأمر بالشكر لإتمامه، وهو عدم عند عدمه.
Taberî9-10. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Taberî, this verse informs those who worship Allah and submit in obedience to Him that they must dedicate worship exclusively to Him and not associate anything with Him in their obedience. For worship is not fitting or appropriate for anyone other than Allah. Furthermore, the verse commands eating from the pure sustenance that Allah has made halal and not following the steps of Satan, abandoning the custom of the pre-Islamic period of considering certain foods as forbidden.
فإن العبادة لا تصلح لغيره ولا تنبغي لشيء سواه
Comparison
Common ground
The common emphasis of the exegetes is that worship must be dedicated exclusively to Allah and that gratitude must be shown for the provision He gives. The idea that gratitude is part of worship, even its complement, and that determining halal and haram cannot be left to human desires and customs (pre-Islamic practices) but must be subject to the standard set by Allah repeats across different exegetes.
Differences
While Zemahşerî and Râzî emphasize linguistic and rhetorical analysis, discussing different metaphorical layers of the term 'worship' (obedience, gratitude, name-effect relationship), Râzî further draws attention to symbol-deity confusion with the example of the Sabians' prostration to the sun. Ibn Kesîr and Taberî highlight narration and jurisprudential deduction, addressing forbidden foods (such as carrion) and pre-Islamic customs in concrete terms. Kurtubî, however, briefly treats the subject by referring to the previous verse rather than offering an original interpretation; these differences stem partly from the exegetical method (linguist/rhetorician, narrator, jurist) and partly from the concerns of the period.
Historical context
While the early exegete Taberî addresses the matter more in a historical/pre-Islamic context and on the basis of narration, later exegetes such as Zemahşerî and Râzî developed sophisticated linguistic and logical discussions, Ibn Kesîr continued the narration tradition, and Beydâwî offered a concise and systematic synthesis. Although the fundamental message (the relationship between gratitude and worship, the fact that halal-haram boundaries belong to Allah) remains constant, the method of explanation and its depth have diversified over time.