⦗68–70⦘ “They say, ‘Allah has taken a child.’ Glory be to Him! He is the Self-Sufficient. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth. You have no authority for this. Do you say about Allah what you do not know? Say, ‘Surely those who fabricate lies about Allah will not succeed. They will have only a brief enjoyment in this world; then to Us is their return. Then We will make them taste the severe punishment for their disbelief.’”

The Exalted declares, recounting the idolaters’ monstrous falsehood against the Lord of the worlds: “They say, ‘Allah has taken a child.’” He declares Himself exalted above this by saying, “Glory be to Him!” That is, He is far exalted above what the wrongdoers say when they attribute imperfections to Him. He then establishes this through several proofs:

The first is His statement, “He is the Self-Sufficient.” That is, self-sufficiency belongs exclusively to Him, and He possesses every form of it. He is the Self-Sufficient whose sufficiency is perfect in every respect and from every perspective. Since He is self-sufficient in every respect, why would He take a child?

Would it be because He needs a child? That would contradict His self-sufficiency, for no one takes a child except because of some deficiency in his sufficiency.

The second proof is His statement, “To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth.” This is a comprehensive and universal statement that excludes no being in the heavens or on earth: all are created servants under His ownership.

It is well known that this universal description is incompatible with any of them being His child, for a child is of the same kind as its parent and would not be created or owned. Thus, His universal ownership of all that is in the heavens and on earth is incompatible with His having offspring.

The third proof is His statement, “You have no authority for this.” That is: Do you have any proof or evidence establishing that Allah has a child? Had they possessed any evidence, they would have produced it. But when He challenged them and rendered them incapable of presenting proof, the falsity of their claim became known, as did the fact that it was a statement made without knowledge. Hence He says, “Do you say about Allah what you do not know?” This is among the gravest of prohibitions.

“Say, ‘Surely those who fabricate lies about Allah will not succeed.’” That is, they will neither attain what they seek nor achieve their aim. They merely enjoy their disbelief and lies for a short while in this world. Then they will pass on to Allah and return to Him, and He will make them taste the severe punishment for their disbelief. “Allah did not wrong them, but it was themselves they wronged.”