animals, for the former pair are the two sources of procreation, and the latter pair the two sources from which a conclusion is generated.

Then He, Exalted is He, says:

“And He created all things.”

This makes clear that, if He is the Creator of all things, how could any of them be begotten of Him? Being created and being begotten are mutually exclusive, just as being offspring and being a servant are mutually exclusive.

As He, Exalted is He, says:

“And they say, ‘The Most Merciful has taken a son.’ You have certainly made an outrageous claim. The heavens almost rupture at it, the earth splits open, and the mountains collapse in devastation, because they attribute a son to the Most Merciful. It is not fitting for the Most Merciful to take a son. There is no one in the heavens and the earth who will not come to the Most Merciful as a servant. He has accounted for them and counted them precisely.”

And He, Exalted is He, says:

“And they say, ‘The Most Merciful has taken a son.’ Glory be to Him! Rather, they are honored servants.”

Some jurists have even inferred from this verse that a person’s child becomes free if that person comes to own the child, and therefore cannot remain his slave, since He, glorified is He, has made clear that begetting and enslaving are mutually exclusive.