Surah Az-Zukhruf 43:16-25 - Quran Translation Commentary

17. And if one of them is given (for himself) the tidings of what he had proposed for the Most Gracious, his face darkens and he is filled with gloom.¹⁹

18. That (species) which is bred up in ornaments and cannot make itself plain in disputation!²⁰

19. And they have made the angles, who are the slaves of the Most Gracious, females. Did they witness their creation?²¹ Their testimony will be recorded and they will be questioned.

20. And they say: “If the Most Gracious had (so) willed, we would not have worshipped them.”²² They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do but conjecture.²³

21. Or have We given them holding Scripture before this that they are holding so fast thereto?²⁴

22. Nay, they say: “Verily we found our fathers following a certain religion, and we are on the right path following their footprints.²⁵

23. We did not send before you a warner into any city but its wealthy people said: “Verily we found our forefathers following a religion, and we are following their footprints.”

24. (And the warner) said: “What if I bring you a better guidance than what you found your fathers following?” They replied: “We deny the message that you have brought.”²⁶

25. So We requited them. Then see the consequence of the rejecters!

Commentary

18. The polytheists of Makkah used to say that the angels are Allah’s daughters. The folly of this claim has been made clear in this ayah. They took pride in their sons and considered daughters to be a cause for shame. In view of this mentality of theirs, the folly of their claim is being made clear to them. The purpose is to stress that first of all to think that Allah has children is absurd. Moreover they have imagined angels to be Allah’s daughters, when they themselves do not like to have daughters considering them to be a means of shame. So what they consider dishourable for themselves, how far is it reasonable to consider it honourable for Allah? If they consider only this one aspect, then they would realise that such thinking is foolish on their point.

19. for explanation please see Surah Nahl, Note No.8.

20. This was the way of thinking of the polytheists and they have been confronted with this question. They considered birth of a daughter shameful for them, for in the tribal system numerical strength was a very important factor, and this strength depended on the number of males in a tribe. Male members used to fight against the enemy but not the female. And in a dispute men could express their viewpoint clearly, but not women. On such occasions women generally are carried away by emotions, and therefore, cannot express their viewpoint clearly and convincingly. Therefore, on hearing the news of the birth of a daughter the question that arose before them was how far this child would be useful in the future for them for resisting the enemy, and for putting across their viewpoint. A member of the species that would be brought up in ornaments and trinkets is not welcome as against a son who belongs to the stronger sex and who is brought up under the shadow of swords, who has the strength to fight against the enemy and has the power to face him squarely. They judged a child’s worth from its capability to fight in the tribal war either with weapons or with words. This mentality of theirs has been presented before them and they have been asked as to when they consider females unacceptable to themselves, then how could they propose them for Allah. First of all to think that Allah has children is very foolish. And a further folly was to think that He has daughters, as if Allah has chosen the weaker sex to help Him run His administration and govern over His universe. It is such a claim that its absurdity and folly is quite obvious. How is it that they do not feel any shame in suggesting such an absurd and foolish thing about Allah! There is nothing in the ayah which suggests any insult or derision of the weaker sex. Allah has created females, like males, in the best form, therefore, there is nothing defective in their nature. However, there are differences in the attributes and characteristics of men and women. Men are the symbol of strength while women are the token of adornment. And so far as the running of the system of godhood is concerned, neither men nor women have anything to do with it. And the concept of anybody helping Allah in managing His kingdom is absolutely wrong. In Surah Najm this very thing has been mentioned: “What! For you sons, and for Allah daughters? Such a distribution is very clumsy.” - (Surah Najm 21-22).

And when Ibrahim said to his father and his people: “I am innocent of what you worsihp.”(AL-Quran)

21. How did they come to know that the angels are females? Angels belong to the U nseen world , a nd the only mea ns of knowing the Unseen is through divine revelation, of which they are denier. Were they then present at the time of the birth of the angels that they know their sex? The idea is to clarify that their claim about the sex of the angels is absolutely false. Secondly they are not the part of God that they should be considered, Allah’s daughters. The fact is that they are the special slaves of the Most Merciful, Allah, and they cannot be classified into any sex.

22.This is a wrong argument. When a man determines to enter into an argumentation, he puts the whole responsibility on Allah’s will as if he is helpless due to his luck and has no control over what he does. But man does not adopt this attitude in the matter of dealing with other persons. If a person steals some thing f rom him, or bea ts him or oppresses him, then why does he not think that he is compelled to do so because of his luck, and therefore he is not liable to be punished.

23. The matters of belief and worship should be based on knowledge and not on conjecture. The belief held by the polytheists that the angels were partners of Allah and worthy of worship was not based on any research, but it was merely an absurd imaginary guess, which is a matter of great waywardness.

24. It means that they have no authoritative argument based on divine scripture in support of the angels’ being deities, worthy of worship, because among the Arabs (Bani Ismail) Allah had not revealed any Divine Book before Quran. Then what is the basis on which they are making such a claim? It may be noted that the Messengers of Allah had been coming in different countries to different peoples, but Allah did not send down a divine book to every messenger, for in those days, for want of knowledge of reading and writing, every nation could not benefit from it. Arabs as a nation were unlettered, and whatever instructions were left behind by Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail (p.b.u.t.) were their main guidelines. Similar would have been the case with the other nations of the world. For them prophetic guid a nce might ha ve been somehow provided. For Bani Israil divine messengers were sent and also divine books.

25. They have no convincing proof for indulging in their polytheism and idolatry. They are following blindly their forefathers and they are under the wrong impression that f ollowing the f ootprints of their own forefathers is the right guidance. In the matter of belief and religion man’s greatest waywardness is blindly following the footprints of others in preference to Allah’s message. Then it may be the footprints of their forefathers or other religious leaders or other guides. But Quran cuts at the roots of all following and illumines the path of revelation, which is the path of knowledge. Imam Razi writes clarifying the straying of following: “If in the Book of Allah only these ayah were there, they were sufficient to render false (blind) following, for Allah has clarified that these deniers neither have any intellectual argument nor any documentary proof in support of their religion, which they are holding fast. They are merely following their forefathers and the people who have passed away.’ (At-Tafseerul-Kabeer, Vol.27, p.206).

And Allama Shaukani has criticized the tendency found among Muslims of blindly following and has written in connection with this ayah: “This is a great argument in proving that blind following is false and very ba d,while rema ining in Islam they follow the instructions of their past elders, pursue their footprints, and follow them. When a follower of truth wants to bring them out of this straying, or to save them from this innovation, which they have held fast, and which they have received in their legacy from their elders without any clear or convincing proof, and which being ba sed on wrong d oubts, wea k arguments, and false quotations, are nothing but mere sayings, then they give the same answer, which the rich people of those religions had given that they found their forefathers on this religion and they are following their footprints, and are on the right guidance. Or they say something with this meaning,” -(Fathul Qadeer, Vol.4 page 552).

26. Their answer was an exhibition of their obduracy.

Nay, but I gave them and their fathers provisions to live in comfort until there came to them the Truth and a clear messengers. And now that the Truth Has come to them, they say: “This is mere magic, and verily we are deniers of it.”(Al-Quran)