“Allah has begotten,” yet they are indeed liars (al-Ṣāffāt 37:151–152).
They used to claim that the angels are the daughters of Allah, just as these philosophers maintain that the intellects—or the intellects together with the souls, which they identify as the angels—are generated from Allah. Concerning this the Almighty says:
“They assign to Allah daughters—glory be to Him—while they reserve for themselves whatever they desire. Whenever one of them is given the glad-tidings of a daughter, his face darkens and he suppresses his grief. He hides from the people out of shame at what he has been told: shall he keep her in humiliation, or bury her in the dust? Evil indeed is the judgment they make. Those who do not believe in the Hereafter hold the vilest description, whereas to Allah belongs the loftiest description; and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise” (al-Naḥl 16:57–60),
up to His words:
“They attribute to Allah what they themselves detest, and their tongues utter the lie that the finest reward will be theirs. No indeed! The Fire will be theirs, and they will be cast headlong into it” (al-Naḥl 16:62).
He also says:
“Has He, out of what He creates, chosen daughters for Himself and favored you with sons? Whenever any one of them is told of what he has likened to the All-Merciful, his face darkens and he chokes with grief. Is someone reared amid ornaments and unable to speak clearly in dispute to be associated with Allah? They have made the angels—servants of the All-Merciful—into females. Were they present at their creation? Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned” (al-Zukhruf 43:16–19).
And He says:
“Have you considered al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third, the other? Are you to have the males while He gets the females? That, then, is a most unjust division” (al-Najm 53:19–22)—that is, a grossly unfair apportionment. Similar passages are found elsewhere in the Quran.
Thus the Exalted makes clear that the Creator-Lord is far worthier of being declared free of the deficiencies you reject for yourselves. How, then, can you assign to Him what you would loathe to have attributed to you? You recoil when such things are ascribed to you—though they may in fact befall you—yet you do not declare Him free of them or deny them of Him, when He is the One most deserving of being absolved of every base and debasing attribute found among you.
The same mode of argument appears in matters of tawḥīd (the affirmation of Allah’s oneness), as in His words: “He sets forth for you a parable drawn from your own lives: do you have, among those whom your right hands possess, any partners in the provision We have granted you, so that you and they would be equal in it, and you would fear them…"