Glorification is as natural to them as breathing is to the children of Adam.
“Or have they taken gods from the earth who can bring the dead to life? (21) Had there been in the heavens and the earth gods besides Allah, they both would have fallen into ruin. So exalted is Allah, Lord of the Throne, above what they ascribe to Him. (22) He is not questioned about what He does, but they will be questioned. (23) Or have they taken gods besides Him? Say, ‘Bring forth your proof. This is the message of those with me and the message of those before me.’ Yet most of them do not know the truth, so they turn away. (24)”
“Or have they taken gods” is an interrogative intended as negation; that is, they have not taken them. “From the earth” refers to idols made of wood and stone, both of which come from the earth. “Who can bring the dead to life” means: who give life to the dead. None deserves divinity except one who has the power to give life, bring into existence from nonexistence, and bestow blessings in their most complete forms.
“Had there been in them,” that is, in the heaven and the earth, “gods besides Allah,” meaning other than Allah, “they both would have fallen into ruin”: they would have been devastated, and all who are in them would have perished, because of the conflict between the gods. For every matter that proceeds from two or more agents does not follow an orderly course. Then He declared Himself far above such things, saying: “So exalted is Allah, Lord of the Throne, above what they ascribe to Him”—that is, above what the polytheists ascribe to Him of a partner and a child.
“He is not questioned about what He does,” nor about the judgments He passes concerning His creation, because He is the Lord; “but they will be questioned”—that is, the created beings will be questioned about their actions and deeds (1), because they are servants. 16/a
“Or have they taken gods besides Him?” This is an interrogative of denunciation and rebuke. “Say, ‘Bring forth your proof,’” that is, your evidence for this. Then He begins anew: “This” refers to the Quran. “The message of those with me” contains the account of those who are with me in my religion and who follow me until the Day of Resurrection: the reward they will receive for obedience and the punishment for disobedience. “And the message” is the account “of those before me,” among the previous nations: what He did to them in this world and what will be done to them in the Hereafter.
Ibn Abbas, in the narration of Ata, said: “The message of those with me is the Quran, and the message of those before me is the Torah and the Gospel.” Its meaning is: Refer to the Quran, the Torah, the Gospel, and all the other Scriptures. Do you find in them that Allah has taken a child? “Yet most of them do not know the truth, so they turn away.”