the highest, and He is the Almighty, the Wise.” He continues to His words:
“They attribute to Allah what they themselves dislike, while their tongues falsely claim that the best reward will be theirs. Without doubt, the Fire will be theirs, and they will be abandoned therein.”
He, exalted is He, also said:
“Or has He taken daughters from among His creation and chosen sons for you? When one of them is given news of what he has attributed to the Most Merciful, his face darkens, and he is filled with suppressed grief. Is one brought up amid ornaments and unable to argue clearly in a dispute [to be attributed to Allah]? They have made the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned.”
He, exalted is He, also said:
“Have you considered al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā?”
He continues to His words:
“Is the male for you and the female for Him? That, then, is an unfair division.”
That is, an unjust division. There are other such passages in the Quran.
He, glorified is He, thus makes clear that the Lord, the Creator, has a greater right than you to be declared free of imperfections. How, then, can you attribute to Him what you dislike for yourselves and are unsettled to have attributed to you—even though it inevitably occurs among you—yet fail to declare Him free of it and deny it of Him? He has a greater right than you to be declared free of objectionable attributes that imply imperfection.
Likewise, He says concerning His oneness:
“He sets forth for you an example drawn from yourselves: do you have, among those whom your right hands possess, any partners who share equally with you in what We have provided for you, so that you fear them as you fear one another?”
That is, as some of you fear others. The same usage occurs in His words:
“Yet here you are, killing one another,”
and in His words:
“Why, when you heard it, did believing men and women not think well of one another?”
and in His words:
“Do not defame one another,”
and in His words:
“So repent to your Maker and kill one another,”
and in His words:
“Do not drive one another out of your homes,”
continuing to His words:
“Yet here you are, killing one another.”
The intended meaning is of the same kind in all these passages. He, glorified is He, thus makes clear that a created being does not have his slave as a partner in what he possesses, such that he fears his slave as he fears his equal