- “Say, ‘Bring forward your witnesses who testify that Allah has forbidden this.’ If they testify, do not testify with them. Do not follow the desires of those who deny Our signs, who do not believe in the Hereafter, and who set up equals with their Lord.”
That is: Say to those who have forbidden what Allah has made lawful and attributed this prohibition to Him: “Bring forward your witnesses who testify that Allah has forbidden this.” When this is said to them, they face one of two possibilities:
Either they fail to produce anyone to testify to it, in which case their claim is false and devoid of witnesses or proof;
Or they produce someone to testify in their favor. Yet no one could offer such testimony except an inveterate liar and sinner whose testimony is inadmissible. This is not something to which upright witnesses could validly testify. Hence Allah Most High forbade His Prophet and his followers from offering such testimony, saying:
“If they testify, do not testify with them. Do not follow the desires of those who deny Our signs, who do not believe in the Hereafter, and who set up equals with their Lord.”
That is, they equate other beings with Him, taking them as rivals and idols.
Since they disbelieve in the Last Day and do not affirm Allah’s oneness, their desires accord with their beliefs and revolve around polytheism and denial of the truth. Desires of such a nature certainly warrant Allah’s forbidding the best of His creation from following them or joining their adherents in testimony. It thus becomes clear that their prohibition of what Allah has made lawful arises from those misleading desires.