Falling from the Sky (Surah Al-Hajj 22:31)

Hunafa' Lillah means, sincerely submitting to Him Alone, shunning falsehood and seeking the truth. Allah says:

not associating partners unto Him; Then Allah gives a likeness of the idolator in his misguidance and being doomed and being far away from true guidance, and says:

and whoever assigns partners to Allah, it is as if he had fallen from the sky,

the birds caught him in midair,

or the wind had thrown him to a far off place. means, remote and desolate, dangerous for anyone who lands there. Hence it says in the Hadith of Al-Bara':
When the angels of death take the soul of the disbeliever in death, they take his soul up to the heaven, but the gates of heaven are not opened for him; on the contrary, his soul is thrown down from there.  Then he recited this Ayah. The Hadith has already been quoted in our explanation of Surah Ibrahim. Allah gives another parable of the idolators in Surah Al-An`am, where He says:

Say: "Shall we invoke others besides Allah, that can do us neither good nor can harm us, and shall we turn back on our heels after Allah has guided us -- like one whom the Shayaلtin have made to go astray in the land in confusion, his companions calling him to guidance (saying): `Come to us.''' Say: "Verily, Allah's guidance is the only guidance.'' [6:71]



Reference: Tafsir ibn Kathir (abridged) English version.