“Or do their minds command them to say this, or are they a transgressing people? * Or do they say, ‘He has fabricated it’? Rather, they do not believe. * Then let them produce a discourse like it, if they are truthful. * Or were they created from nothing, or are they themselves the creators? * Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they have no certainty. * Or do they possess the treasures of your Lord, or are they the ones in control? * Or do they have a ladder by which they listen? Then let their listener produce clear proof. * Or does He have daughters while you have sons? * Or do you ask them for a fee, so that they are weighed down by debt? * Or do they possess the unseen and write it down? * Or do they intend a plot? Yet it is the unbelievers themselves who will be ensnared. * Or do they have a god other than Allah? Glory be to Allah, far above what they associate with Him.”
“Or do their minds command them to say this, or are they a transgressing people?” That is: Did their denial of you and the statements they made arise from their reason and judgment? How wretched are the minds and judgments that produced such effects and gave rise to such words! (1)
Minds that deemed the most perfect of creation in intellect to be mad, and deemed the truest of truths (2) and the most rightful of all truth to be lies and falsehood, are surely minds too deficient to be attributed even to madmen. Or was it their injustice and transgression that drove them to this? The latter is indeed the case, for transgression has no boundary (3) at which it stops. Thus, no word or deed that proceeds from a transgressor who exceeds all bounds should be considered surprising.
“Or do they say, ‘He has fabricated it’?” That is: Do they say that Muhammad fabricated the Quran and composed it himself? “Rather, they do not believe.” Had they believed, they would not have said what they did.
“Then let them produce a discourse like it, if they are truthful” in claiming that he fabricated it. You are eloquent Arabs and masters of rhetoric, and he has challenged you to produce its like. Either make good your challenge or acknowledge its truth and admit that even if all of you—humankind and jinn alike—were to join forces, you could neither rival it nor produce its like. You are therefore faced with two choices: either believe in it and be guided by its guidance, or remain obstinate and follow what you know to be false.
“Or were they created from nothing, or are they themselves the creators?” This is an argument against them concerning a matter in which they can do nothing but submit to the truth or abandon the dictates of both reason and religion. To explain: they deny Allah’s oneness and reject His Messenger, which necessarily entails denying that Allah created them.
Reason and revelation establish that there are only three possibilities:
Either they were created from nothing—that is, no creator created them; rather, they came into existence without anything bringing them into existence and without any originator. This is utterly impossible.
Or they created themselves. This too is impossible, for it is inconceivable that they could bring themselves into existence. (4)
Once [these two] possibilities are invalidated and their impossibility becomes clear, [the third possibility] necessarily follows: Allah is the One who created them. Once this is established, it is known that Allah Most High alone is worthy of worship and that worship is neither fitting nor valid for anyone but Him.
As for His words, “Or did they create the heavens and the earth?” this is a question establishing a negation. That is, they did not create the heavens and the earth and thus are not partners with Allah. This is perfectly clear. Yet those who deny the truth “have no certainty”: they lack complete knowledge and a certainty that would enable them to benefit from the scriptural and rational proofs.
“Or do they possess the treasures of your Lord, or are they the ones in control?” That is: Do these deniers possess the treasures of your Lord’s mercy, granting them to whomever they please and withholding them from whomever they wish? Is that why they presume to restrict Allah from granting prophethood to His servant and Messenger Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—as though they were agents entrusted with full authority over the treasures of Allah’s mercy? They are far too insignificant and abject for that. They possess no power even over benefit or harm for themselves, nor over death, life, or resurrection.
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“Is it they who distribute your Lord’s mercy? It is We who have distributed their livelihood among them in the life of this world.”
“Or are they the ones in control?” That is, do they exercise coercive and overwhelming authority over Allah’s creation and dominion?
That is not the case. Rather, they are helpless and needy.
“Or do they have a ladder by which they listen?” That is, do they have access to the unseen and listen to it among the Highest Assembly, so that they can report matters unknown to everyone else?
“Then let their listener”—the one making this claim—“produce clear proof.” But how could he ever do so?
Allah Most High knows the unseen and the seen. He does not disclose His unseen to [anyone] (5), except a messenger whom He has chosen and whom He informs of whatever knowledge He wills.
Since Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is the most excellent and most knowledgeable of the messengers and their leader, and since he is the one reporting what he has reported concerning Allah’s oneness, His promise, His warning, and his other truthful reports, while the deniers are people of ignorance, error, deviation, and obstinacy, which of the two is more deserving of having his report accepted? This is especially so when the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—has established proofs and demonstrations for what he reported that require his report (6) to be certainty itself and the most complete truth, whereas they have not produced even the semblance of an argument for their claims, let alone established proof.
As for His words, “Or does He have daughters,” as you claim, “while you have sons?” Do you thus combine two objectionable claims: ascribing a child to Him and assigning Him what you regard as the inferior of the two sexes? Can denigration of the Lord of the worlds go any further than this, or is there any lower depth beneath it?
“Or do you ask them,” O Messenger, “for a fee” for conveying the message, “so that they are weighed down by debt”? That is not the case. Rather, you are eager to teach them freely, asking nothing in return. Indeed, you expend abundant wealth upon them to encourage them to accept your message and respond to [your command and] your call, and you give to those whose hearts are to be won over [so that knowledge and faith may become firmly established in their hearts].
“Or do they possess the unseen and write it down?” Do they write down whatever unseen matters they know, having gained access to knowledge that was withheld from Allah’s Messenger, and then oppose and defy him on the basis of this knowledge of the unseen? It is well known that they are an unlettered people, ignorant and astray, whereas Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—possesses knowledge greater than that of anyone else, and Allah has informed him of unseen knowledge that He disclosed to no other created being. All of this compels them, through rational and scriptural arguments, to acknowledge the falsity of their claim, and demonstrates its invalidity by the finest, clearest, and least objectionable methods.
As for His words, “Or do they intend”—by disparaging you and what you have brought them—“a plot” by which they seek to invalidate your religion and ruin your cause?
“Yet it is the unbelievers themselves who will be ensnared.” That is, their plot will recoil upon them and its harm will return to them. Allah indeed brought this about—and all praise belongs to Allah. The unbelievers left no stratagem within their power untried, yet Allah granted His Prophet and His religion victory over them (7), foiled them, and exacted retribution from them.
“Or do they have a god other than Allah?” That is, do they have any deity besides Allah Most High whom they invoke, whose benefit they hope for, and whose harm they fear? “Glory be to Allah, far above what they associate with Him.” He has no partner in His dominion and no partner in His oneness or His right to worship. This is the purpose for which this entire discourse was presented: to establish the invalidity and corruption of worshipping anything besides Allah through these decisive proofs; to show that the way of the polytheists is false; and to establish that the One who ought to be worshipped, to whom prayer and prostration should be offered, and to whom both devotional supplication and supplication for one’s needs must be devoted sincerely, is Allah—the One worshipped and adored, whose names and attributes are perfect, whose beautiful qualities and gracious deeds are abundant, the Possessor of Majesty and Honor and of unassailable might, the One, the Unique, the Only, the Self-Sufficient Master, the Great, the Praiseworthy, the Glorious.