[A Comparison between the Polytheism of the Magians and that of the Arabs]

One point that sheds light on this matter is that the Magians are, in the sphere of monotheism, far more idolatrous than the pagan Arabs. The Arabs acknowledged that the Creator of the universe is One—something Allah mentions in several passages—and they never claimed that the world has two makers. True, among them were those who attributed children to Allah, saying, “The angels are Allah’s daughters,” yet they never asserted that the angels create along with Him. Rather, they admitted that Allah is the Creator of everything, as He Himself relates about them. What they did was to take their idols as intercessors and means of drawing near, as the Most High says: “And they worship besides Allah that which can neither harm them nor benefit them, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah’” (Yūnus 10:18). He also says: “We worship them only so that they may bring us nearer to Allah” (az-Zumar 39:3).

The Magians, by contrast, speak of two primordial principles: light and darkness. They maintain that darkness created evil, while light created good.