Allah. Yet He has declared them to be polytheists and proclaimed Himself exalted above the partners they associate with Him, because they worshipped others alongside Him—not because they believed that the worlds had another Lord alongside Him. Likewise, He says:

“Say, ‘Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. Is Allah better, or what they associate with Him?’ {59} Or He who created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you from the sky” [The Ants 59–60],

and so on through the subsequent verses. Throughout them, He asks rhetorical questions expressing denial: does any of the gods they worship besides Allah do these things?

In His words, “A god alongside Allah?” [The Ants 60], “alongside Allah” qualifies “a god,” forming a single noun phrase rather than a complete sentence, as a group of exegetes supposed. They understood the meaning to be, “Is there a god alongside Allah?” Yet these people did take other gods alongside Allah, as He mentions in this surah:

“Is Allah better, or what they associate with Him?” {59}

There would therefore be no point in questioning them about something they already acknowledged. Moreover, their answer concerning what is being asked can only be a single expression, not a complete sentence. When it is asked, “Who did this?” one says, “So-and-so or so-and-so,” without stating a complete sentence. Indeed, if that were the intended construction, the discourse would not cohere. Rather, what is meant is