21. Surah Al Anbiya
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
لَا
يُسْأَلُ عَمَّا
يَفْعَلُ وَهُمْ
يُسْأَلُونَ
﴿٢٣﴾
21: 23. He cannot be questioned for His acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs).
C2683. Allah is Self-Subsisting. All His creatures are responsible to Him and dependent on Him there is no other being to whom He can be responsible or on whom He can be dependent.
أَمِ
اتَّخَذُوا
مِن دُونِهِ
آلِهَةً...
21: 24. Or have they taken for worship (other) gods besides Him?
C2684. See above. n. 2682, where two kinds of false worship are noted.
Now we are warned against a third danger, the worship of false gods of any sort. Pagan man is prolific of creating abstract images for worship, including Self or abstract Intelligence or Power.
In verse 26 below is mentioned a fourth kind of false worship, which imagines that Allah begets sons or daughters.
...قُلْ هَاتُوا بُرْهَانَكُمْ...
Say,
"Bring your convincing proof:
...هَذَا ذِكْرُ مَن مَّعِيَ وَذِكْرُ مَن قَبْلِي...
this is the Message of those with me and the Message of those before me."
C2685. This verse should be read with the next.
All reason revolts against the idea of conflicting gods, and points to Unity in Creation and Unity in Godhead. This is not only the Message of Islam ("those with me") but the message of all prophets who came before the holy Prophet Muhammad ("those before me"), and the line of prophets was closed with him.
The Message given to every prophet in all ages was that of Unity as the fundamental basis of Order and Design in the world, material, moral, and spiritual.
...بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْحَقَّ فَهُم مُّعْرِضُونَ ﴿٢٤﴾
But most of them know not the Truth, and so turn away.
وَمَا
أَرْسَلْنَا
مِن قَبْلِكَ
مِن رَّسُولٍ
إِلَّا نُوحِي
إِلَيْهِ أَنَّهُ...
21: 25. Not a Messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by Us to him:
...لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنَا فَاعْبُدُونِ ﴿٢٥﴾
that there is no god but I;
therefore worship and serve Me.
21:23
He cannot be called to account for whatever He does, whereas they will be called to account:
(21:24) and yet, 29 ' they choose to worship [imaginary) deities instead of Him! Say [O Prophet): "Produce an evidence for what you are claiming: 30 this is a reminder [unceasingly voiced) by those who are with me, just as it was a reminder [voiced] by those who came before me."" But nay, most of them do not know the truth, and so they stubbornly turn away [from it] 52 –
(21:25) and [this despite the fact that even] before thy time We never sent any apostle without having revealed to him that there is no deity save Me, [and that,]therefore, you shall worship Me [alone]!
[[Asad’s note - 29 See note 24 above.
30 Lit., "produce your evidence", i.e., for the existence of deities other than God, as well as for the intellectual and moral justification of worshipping anything but Him.
31 I.e., the earlier prophets, the purport of whose messages was always the stress on the oneness of God.
32 In other words, most people's obstinate refusal to consider a reasonable proposition on its
merits is often due to no more than the simple fact that it is not familiar to them. ]]