Surah An-Nahl (16) — Ayah 57

(Ayah57){وَ يَجْعَلُوْنَ لِلّٰهِ الْبَنٰتِ …:} This is a statement of two faults ascribed to Allah Almighty by them: first, that they attributed offspring to Allah, whereas He is free from offspring. The second fault is that they declared the angels, who are servants of Allah, to be Allah’s children, and even made the offspring female, while they themselves prefer sons for themselves and consider daughters a source of disgrace for themselves. How great an injustice this is. In between, Allah Almighty, by saying {’’ سُبْحٰنَهٗ ‘‘} (He is pure), has negated every kind of offspring from Himself, whether son or daughter, because then it would be necessary to accept a wife for Him, whereas a husband is dependent on a wife, and offspring are partners and successors of the father, while Allah Almighty is free from dependence, partnership, and decline, because these three are faults for Him. He is {’’ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَ لَمْ يُوْلَدْ‘‘} and He alone is self-sufficient, all others are dependent on Him. He said: «{ يٰۤاَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اَنْتُمُ الْفُقَرَآءُ اِلَى اللّٰهِ وَ اللّٰهُ هُوَ الْغَنِيُّ الْحَمِيْدُ }» [ فاطر : ۱۵ ] “O people! You are the ones in need of Allah, and Allah alone is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy.” Only He is everlasting, everything else is perishable. See also Surah Al-An’am (101), Surah Bani Isra’il (40), Surah As-Saffat (151–154), Surah Az-Zukhruf (11), and Surah An-Najm (21, 22).

57. 1. Some tribes of Arabia (Khuza'ah and Kinana) used to worship angels and said that these are Allah's daughters. That is, one injustice they did was to declare that Allah has offspring, whereas He has no offspring. Then, even the offspring is female, which they do not like for themselves, but they chose it for Allah. As mentioned elsewhere, "Are sons for you and for Him daughters? This is a very unfair division." Here it is said that you desire to have sons, and not daughters.

57. They assign daughters [54] to Allah—Glory be to Him!—while for themselves is what they desire [55] (i.e., sons).

[54]
The Goddesses of the Arabs, Their Status, and Their Worshippers:

Like the Indian, Greek, and Egyptian civilizations, the polytheists of Arabia had fewer gods and more goddesses, and their belief regarding these goddesses was that they were the daughters of Allah. Similarly, they also considered the angels to be the daughters of Allah. Their three famous goddesses were Lat, Uzza, and Manat. Lat is the feminine form of Ilah, Uzza is the feminine of Aziz, and Manat is the feminine of Mannan. The shrine or sanctuary of Lat was in Ta’if, and the Banu Thaqif were its worshippers. Uzza was the special goddess of the Quraysh of Makkah, and its shrine or sanctuary was located at the place of Huras in the valley of Nakhlah between Makkah and Ta’if. Thus, Abu Sufyan, the commander of the Quraysh, raised the slogan of this goddess while addressing the Muslims in the battlefield of Uhud and said: «لنا عزيٰ ولاعزيٰ لكم» And the shrine of Manat was located at Qudayd on the shore of the Red Sea between Makkah and Madinah. The Banu Khuza’ah, Aws, and Khazraj were the worshippers of this goddess. Its pilgrimage and circumambulation were also performed regularly. During the time of Hajj, when the pilgrims would finish the circumambulation of the House of Allah and the rites of Arafat and Mina, from there the cries of “Labbayk, Labbayk” would rise for the visitation of Manat, and those who intended this second pilgrimage would not perform the Sa’i between Safa and Marwah. Thus, the polytheists of Arabia committed a double injustice: firstly, they associated partners with Allah, and secondly, those partners were such whom they considered to be the daughters of Allah.

[55] That is, their polytheistic beliefs about Allah were so lowly and blasphemous that, for themselves, they considered the existence of daughters to be a cause of disgrace and shame, merely because someone would become their son-in-law and they themselves would be his father-in-law. But in the matter of Allah, they committed a double injustice: firstly, they ascribed offspring to Allah, and secondly, even that offspring they made daughters. In other words, they preferred good things for themselves and attributed the deficient to Allah.