and earth? Or who controls hearing and sight? Who brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living? Who governs all affairs?’ They will say, ‘Allah.’ Say, ‘Will you not then fear Him?’”

“That is Allah, your true Lord. What is there beyond the truth except error? How, then, are you turned away?”

“Thus your Lord’s decree has come into effect against those who defiantly disobey: they will not believe.”

“Say, ‘Can any of those you associate with Allah originate creation and then bring it back?’ Say, ‘Allah originates creation and then brings it back. How, then, are you deluded?’”

“Say, ‘Can any of those you associate with Allah guide to the truth?’ Say, ‘Allah guides to the truth. Is the One who guides to the truth more worthy of being followed, or one who cannot find the way unless guided? What is the matter with you? How do you judge?’”

“Most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Conjecture is no substitute whatsoever for the truth. Surely Allah knows all that they do.”

Having established His oneness, He likewise established prophethood, saying:

“This Quran could not have been fabricated by anyone other than Allah. Rather, it confirms what came before it and explains the Scripture in detail. There is no doubt about it: it is from the Lord of all worlds.”

“Or do they say, ‘He fabricated it’? Say, ‘Then produce a surah like it, and call upon whomever you can besides Allah, if you are truthful.’”

“Rather, they denied what they had not fully comprehended and whose fulfillment had not yet come to them.”

These people likened the created being to the Creator, and this was part of their denial. The polytheists did not regard their gods as equal to Allah in every respect. Rather, they believed that Allah was their Creator and Owner, and that they were His creatures and belonged to Him. Yet they treated Him and their gods as equals in love, reverence, supplication, worship, vows made to them, and other such matters that belong exclusively to the Lord.