53. Surah An-Najm
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
أَلَكُمُ
الذَّكَرُ
وَلَهُ الْأُنثَى
﴿٢١﴾
53:21. What! for you the male sex, and for Him, the female?
C5096. To show Allah in human shape, or imagine sons or daughters of Allah, as if Allah were flesh, was in any case a derogation from the supreme glory of Allah, high above all creatures, even if the human shapes were invested with great beauty and majesty as in the Greek Pantheon. But when we consider in what low opinion Pagan Arabia held the female sex, it was particularly degrading to show Allah, or so-called daughters of Allah, in female shapes.
Cf. 16:57-59, and n. 2082; also 52:39, and n. 5073.
تِلْكَ
إِذًا قِسْمَةٌ
ضِيزَى
﴿٢٢﴾
53:22. Behold, such would be indeed a division most unfair!
إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا أَسْمَاء سَمَّيْتُمُوهَا أَنتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُم مَّا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِن سُلْطَانٍ ...
53: 23. These are nothing but names which ye have devised -- ye and your fathers -- for which Allah has sent down no authority (whatever).
C5097. Cf. 7:71; 12:40 , n. 1693.
The divine names which they give to stocks and stones, or to heroes living or dead, or even to prophets and men of God, are but the creations of their own fancy. Whatever they were, they were not gods.
...إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَمَا تَهْوَى الْأَنفُسُ...
They follow nothing but conjecture and what their own souls desire! --
C5098. Cf. 6:116.
Conjecture is a dangerous thing in speaking of divine things. It follows lines which reflect the lusts of men's own hearts. Why not follow the divine guidance which comes through the prophets of Allah?.
...وَلَقَدْ
جَاءهُم مِّن
رَّبِّهِمُ
الْهُدَى
﴿٢٣﴾
even though there has already come to them Guidance from their Lord!
The Meccan Idols Were False Attributes
Asad’s Version:
53:21 Why - for yourselves [you would choose only] male offspring, whereas to Him [you assign] female: 14
(53:22) that, lo and behold, is an unfair division!
(53:23) These [allegedly divine beings] are nothing but empty names which you have invented - you and your forefathers - [and] for which God has bestowed no warrant from on high. 15 They [who worship them] follow nothing but surmise and their own wishful thinking 16 - although right guidance has now indeed come unto them from their Sustainer.
53:19 Have you considered Allaat and Al-Uzzah?*
53:20 And Manaat, the third one?
53:21 Do you have the males, while He has the females?
53:22 What a strange distribution!
53:23 These are but names/attributes that you made up, you and your forefathers. God never authorized such. They only follow conjecture, and wishful thinking, while the guidance has come to them from their Lord.
[[Asad’s notes - 14 In view of the contempt which the pagan Arabs felt for their female offspring (cf 16:57-59 and 62, as well as the corresponding notes), their attribution of "daughters" to God was particularly absurd and self-contradictory: for, quite apart from the blasphemous belief in God's having "offspring" of any kind, their ascribing to Him what they themselves despised gave the lie to their alleged "reverence" for Him whom they, too, regarded as the Supreme Being - a point which is stressed with irony in the next
sentence.
15 Cf. 12:40.
16 An allusion to the pagan idea that those goddesses, as well as the angels, would act as "mediators" between their worshippers and God: a wishful idea which lingers on even among adherents of higher religions in the guise of a veneration of saints and deified persons. ]]