intended to elicit acknowledgment, establishing the proof against them and denying any deity alongside Allah, who watches over every soul and what it has earned through His knowledge, power, and recompense in this world and the Hereafter. He watches over each soul, records its deeds, and recompenses it for whatever good or evil it has earned. If you claim that those beings are His partners, then call them by the names of the One who watches over every soul and what it has earned. For He, glorified is He, is called the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting Sustainer, the Giver of Life, the Bringer of Death, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the One who has no need of anything besides Him, while everything needs Him and owes its existence to Him. Do your gods deserve any of these names? If they truly are gods, then call them by one of these names. Yet that would be a blatant falsehood. Once it is established that these names do not apply to them, the falsity of their names becomes clear, as does the falsity of what those names signify.

On the other hand, suppose they call them by names that truly apply to them: stones and other inanimate objects; the names of animals they have worshipped besides Allah, such as cattle and others; the names of devils they have associated with Allah, majestic and exalted is He; or the names of celestial bodies subjected to the Lord’s commands. The names encompassing them all are those of created beings: needy, governed, and subjugated. The same applies to human beings worshipping one another. These are their true names, and they invalidate their divinity, because the names inseparable from divinity cannot possibly apply to them. Thus, it becomes clear that calling them gods is itself among the strongest proofs that their divinity is false and that they cannot possibly be partners with Allah, mighty and majestic is He.