Sura-43 [Az Zukhruf Mecca 63]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:

أَمِ اتَّخَذَ مِمَّا يَخْلُقُ بَنَاتٍ وَأَصْفَاكُم بِالْبَنِينَ ﴿١٦﴾

43:16. What!

Has He taken Daughters out of what He Himself creates, and granted to you sons for choice?

C4621. To imagine goddesses (female gods) or mothers or daughters to Allah was particularly blasphemous in the mouths of people who held the female sex in contempt. Such were the pagan Arabs, and such (it is to be feared) are some of the moderns. They wince when a daughter is born to them and hanker after sons. With that mentality, how can they attribute daughters to Allah?

وَإِذَا بُشِّرَ أَحَدُهُم بِمَا ضَرَبَ لِلرَّحْمَنِ مَثَلًا ظَلَّ وَجْهُهُ مُسْوَدًّا وَهُوَ كَظِيمٌ ﴿١٧﴾

43:17. When news is brought to one of them of (the birth of) what he sets up as a likeness to (Allah) Most Gracious, his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief!

C4622. Cf. 16:57-59 and notes.

With scathing irony it is pointed out that what they hate and are ashamed of for themselves they attribute to Allah!

أَوَمَن يُنَشَّأُ فِي الْحِلْيَةِ وَهُوَ فِي الْخِصَامِ غَيْرُ مُبِينٍ ﴿١٨﴾

43:18. Is then one brought up among trinkets, and unable to give a clear account in a dispute (to be associated with Allah)?

C4623. The softer sex is usually brought up among trinkets and ornaments, and, on account of the retiring modesty which for the sex is a virtue, is unable to stand up boldly in a fight and give clear indications of the will to win.

Is that sort of quality to be associated with Allah?

Asad’s Version:

43:16 Or [do you think], perchance, that out of all His creation He has chosen for Himself daughters, and favored you with sons?"

(43 : 1 7) For [thus it is:] if any of them is given the glad tiding of [the birth of] what he so readily attributes to the Most Gracious, 15 his face darkens, and he is filled with suppressed anger:

43:18) "What! [Am I to have a daughter -] one who is to be reared [only] for the sake of ornament?" 16 - and thereupon he finds himself torn by a vague inner conflict. 17

[[Asad’s notes - 1 5 Lit., "what he postulates as a likeness of [or "as likely for"] the Most Gracious" : i.e., female offspring, which implies a natural "likeness" to its progenitor.

16 I.e., one who, from the viewpoint of the pre-Islamic Arabs, would have no function other than "embellishing" a man's life.

17 Lit., "he finds himself in an invisible (ghayr mubin) conflict" - i.e., an inner conflict which he does not quite admit to his consciousness: Cf. 16:59 - "[he debates within himself:] Shall he keep this child despite the contempt [which he feels for it] - or shall he bury it in the dust?" (See also, in particular, the corresponding note 66.) ]]