al-Siddīq, who said:

‘Whoever worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad has died; but whoever worships Allah, Allah is Ever-Living and never dies.’ He then recited the words of Allah Most High:

‘Muhammad is no more than a messenger; messengers have passed away before him. If he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? Whoever turns back on his heels will not harm Allah at all, and Allah will reward the grateful.’

It was as though the people had never heard it until Abū Bakr recited it.” There was not a single person who was not reciting it. In times of crisis, people lose sight of the meanings of the Quran, but when reminded of them, they recognize them.

Allah Most High said:

“Indeed, when those who fear Allah are touched by a prompting from Satan, they remember Allah, and then they see clearly.”

“But their brothers draw them deeper into error and never relent.”

As for His words, Most High:

“Are males for you and females for Him?”

“That, then, is an unjust division!”

That is, an unjust, distorted division, since you assign to yourselves what you love—males—while assigning females to Me. This refers to their claim that the angels are Allah’s daughters: they attributed female children to Him, although they themselves hated for any of their children to be female. They are like the Christians, who attribute a child to Allah while considering a senior monk too exalted to have a child.

As for al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third and last, when Allah Most High said:

“Are males for you and females for Him?”

A group, including al-Kalbī, interpreted this to mean that they used to say, “These idols are Allah’s daughters.” This is the explanation mentioned by a group of later scholars.