قَالَ بَلْ فَعَلَهُۥ كَبِيرُهُمْ هَٰذَا فَسْـَٔلُوهُمْ إِن كَانُوا۟ يَنطِقُونَ
Important Words:
بل is a particle of digression. Sometimes its meaning is either the cancellation of what precedes as in بل عباد مکرمون i.e. nay (or nay rather or nay but), they are honoured servants (21:27); or transition from one object of discourse to another as in بل تؤثرون الحیاة الدنیا i.e. but you prefer the present life (87:17). Sometimes it is also used to denote the passing from one subject to another without cancelling what precedes it and is syn. with و(and), as in بل ھو قرآن مجید i.e. And it is a glorious Quran. Thus بل means, but; and; surely or verily (Lane). Here it is used in the sense of إن (surely).
Commentary:
If the expression بل فعله کبیرھم ھذا is rendered as "somebody has surely done this," a stop will have to be placed after فعله and the words کبیرھم ھذا will be treated as an independent sentence meaning, "here is the chief" of them. This is the meaning we have adopted in the text and this seems to be the more correct meaning. Or the words بل فعله کبیرھم ھذا may have been spoken ironically or by way of mockery by Abraham as was his wont while talking to his idolatrous people. In that case the sense of the words would be something like this: "Why should have I done this, their chief here may have done it," meaning thereby that "the fact is too evident to warrant any questioning or to need any explanation that I have done this, i.e. I have broken the idols. If I had not done this, could this lifeless block of stone have done this?" In this verse Abraham seems to have rebuked his people for their idolatrous practices and brought home to them the futility of those practices, first by breaking the idols and then by challenging their votaries to ask those idols to tell them who had broken them.
The verse by implication points to one of the most important Divine attributes. Abraham confounded his idolatrous people by first breaking the idols and then by inferring therefrom that an idol which could not save itself from harm and which could not even answer the call of its worshippers was but a lifeless thing, fit to be thrown on the scrap-heap, and that his Lord was the Ever-living God Who answered and accepted the prayers of His servants. See also 20:90.
Besides the meaning given in the text, the Arabic expression may have been spoken ironically by Abraham as was his wont while talking to his idolatrous people. In this case the sense of the words would be something like this: 'Why should I have done this, their chief may have done this,' meaning thereby that the fact is too evident to warrant any questioning or need any explanation that I have done this. If I had not done this, could this lifeless block of stone have done this? Abraham seems to have rebuked his people and to have brought home to them the futility of their idolatrous practices, first by breaking the idols and then by challenging their votaries to ask those idols, if they could speak, to tell them who had broken them.