21. al-Anbiyaa, Mecca 73

The Quranic Text & Ali’s translation:

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.

Asad’s translation:

(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]!

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2683. 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

2684. 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.

2685. 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.