Surah Az-Zukhruf, Ayah 16

Condemnation of the Idolators' attribution of Offspring to Allah

Here Allah speaks of the lies and fabrications of the idolators, when they devoted some of their cattle to their false gods and some to Allah, as He described in Surat Al-An`am where He said:

وَجَعَلُواْ لِلَّهِ مِمَّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ الْحَرْثِ وَالاٌّنْعَامِ نَصِيباً فَقَالُواْ هَـذَا لِلَّهِ بِزَعْمِهِمْ وَهَـذَا لِشُرَكَآئِنَا فَمَا كَانَ لِشُرَكَآئِهِمْ فَلاَ يَصِلُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَمَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ فَهُوَ يَصِلُ إِلَى شُرَكَآئِهِمْ سَآءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ

(And they assign to Allah share of the tilth and cattle which He has created, and they say: "This is for Allah" according to their claim, "and this is for our partners." But the share of their partners reaches not Allah, while the share of Allah reaches their partners! Evil is the way they judge!) (6:136). Similarly, out of the two kinds of offspring, sons and daughters, they assigned to Him the worst and least valuable (in their eyes), i.e., daughters, as Allah says:

وَجَعَلُوا لَهُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ جُزْءًا (And they have attributed to Him [ that He is composed on parts [ and that too ] out of His slaves...43:15) 'parts' in this verse means 'offspring', because the polytheists used to say that angels are daughters of Allah, and by using the word 'parts' instead of 'offspring' the fallacy of their claim has been pointed out on pure logical ground. The gist of the argument is that had Allah any offspring, that offspring will have been His part, because a son is a part of his father, and it is a rule of logic that an entity that consists of parts is dependent upon its parts for its full existence. This will then necessarily mean that Allah Ta’ ala is also dependent on His offspring, which is obviously impossible, because dependence of any kind, being a negation of the Divine Majesty, is out of question in Allah's case.

In every period, the majority of people have admitted, that the Creator and Lord of the Universe is God, and that it is He who has provided them with the wherewithal for the sustenance of life. To bring the Universe into existence and to make every provision for life on the earth are such gigantic tasks that it is impossible to attribute their undertaking to anyone except the one and only God. This assertion calls for man to devote his attention to God above all; his life should be a God-oriented life. But man sets himself other goals; he places entities other than God at the centre of his attention. Almighty God has revealed the realities through His prophets. In addition to that, He has created the world in such a way that it has become the practical illustration, or analogy of hidden realities. For instance, it is a fact that human beings will be resurrected after death—a fact shown at the level of vegetation again and again. It is seen by man every year that the land becomes dry and dead. Then there are rains and the land is again covered with lush greenery. This phenomenon points to the fact that man will be brought to life again after death. Another special feature of the present world is that it is most wonderfully favourable to human existence. Everything here has been created in such a way that it can be used by man for his own purposes as he wishes. This blessing demands that a feeling of gratitude should develop in man. Whenever he happens to use anything in God’s world, he should spontaneously bow his head before God and words of acknowledgement and prayer should fall from his lips.