سُوْرَةُ النَّجْمِ
Surah An-Najm (53) — Ayah 27
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ لَيُسَمُّونَ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةَ تَسْمِيَةَ ٱلْأُنثَىٰ ﴿27﴾
Translation by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan & Dr. Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali
Verily, those who believe not in the Hereafter, name the angels with female names.
Word by Word — Arabic, Transliteration & Meaning
إِنَّ
inna
Indeed
ٱلَّذِينَ
alladhīna
those who
لَا
lā
(do) not
يُؤْمِنُونَ
yu'minūna
believe
بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ
bil-ākhirati
in the Hereafter
لَيُسَمُّونَ
layusammūna
surely they name
ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةَ
l-malāikata
the Angels
تَسْمِيَةَ
tasmiyata
name(s)
ٱلْأُنثَىٰ
l-unthā
(of) female
Tafsir Taiseer ul-Quran — Maulana Abdul Rahman Kilani
Tafsir Taiseer ul-Quran (Facilitation of the Quran) is a comprehensive Quran commentary by Maulana Abdul Rahman Kilani, a renowned Salafi (Ahl al-Hadith) scholar from Pakistan. Known for his eloquent and accessible writing style, Kilani authored this tafsir with a focus on clarity — making Quranic meanings understandable to the common reader. The tafsir provides detailed historical context for verses related to battles and expeditions, and firmly refutes modernist ideologies using strong scriptural evidence. It is widely regarded as an invaluable resource for understanding the Quran and countering deviant interpretations. The tafsir is originally written in Urdu, translated to English by tohed.com.
27. Indeed, those who do not believe in the Hereafter give the angels female names.
[18]
The Beliefs of the Polytheists of Makkah Regarding Their Goddesses:
Angels are such creatures of Allah who do not have the authority to disobey Allah’s command. Their obedience is involuntary and compulsory, not by choice. Then, without Allah’s permission, they cannot intercede for anyone. But these polytheists, having assigned divine powers to these angels, began to worship them. The second injustice they committed was to declare them as Allah’s children, and the third was to consider the angels as female. The result of all these things was that the angels are Allah’s daughters who can fulfill our needs and remove our difficulties, and if the Day of Judgment actually occurs, they will intercede for us and save us. Then they carved imaginary stone idols of them and began to worship them. The only reason for this is that they do not believe in the Hereafter. And in this worldly life, there is no distinguishing difference between a disbeliever or polytheist and a monotheist. There are sick polytheists as well as monotheists. There are prosperous polytheists as well as monotheists. Calamities and difficulties befall both polytheists and monotheists. In fact, the worldly life of monotheists is more difficult than that of disbelievers and polytheists because they have to observe the limits of halal and haram and other commands of Allah Almighty. Therefore, in the eyes of the polytheists, it is not a very important or serious matter whether a person considers someone as a deity or not, or makes as many and whatever kind of deities as he wishes. According to them, the decision of truth and falsehood is made only in this world, and the results that appear in this world do not at all decide that the monotheists are on the truth and the polytheists are on falsehood. Therefore, this matter depends entirely on the desire and will of the polytheists, that they make whatever they wish as deities, as many as they wish, and whenever they wish, abandon one and adopt another as their deity. And whatever they do, they do merely on the basis of their own conjecture and assumption. Allah Almighty has made the Hereafter for the results of shirk and disbelief and tawheed, not this world. And this is the essential need for the Hereafter. If Allah had shown clear and decisive results between the monotheist and the polytheist in this world, then no one could have been tested in this world. However, those who have complete faith in the Hereafter can never commit shirk.
[18]
The Beliefs of the Polytheists of Makkah Regarding Their Goddesses:
Angels are such creatures of Allah who do not have the authority to disobey Allah’s command. Their obedience is involuntary and compulsory, not by choice. Then, without Allah’s permission, they cannot intercede for anyone. But these polytheists, having assigned divine powers to these angels, began to worship them. The second injustice they committed was to declare them as Allah’s children, and the third was to consider the angels as female. The result of all these things was that the angels are Allah’s daughters who can fulfill our needs and remove our difficulties, and if the Day of Judgment actually occurs, they will intercede for us and save us. Then they carved imaginary stone idols of them and began to worship them. The only reason for this is that they do not believe in the Hereafter. And in this worldly life, there is no distinguishing difference between a disbeliever or polytheist and a monotheist. There are sick polytheists as well as monotheists. There are prosperous polytheists as well as monotheists. Calamities and difficulties befall both polytheists and monotheists. In fact, the worldly life of monotheists is more difficult than that of disbelievers and polytheists because they have to observe the limits of halal and haram and other commands of Allah Almighty. Therefore, in the eyes of the polytheists, it is not a very important or serious matter whether a person considers someone as a deity or not, or makes as many and whatever kind of deities as he wishes. According to them, the decision of truth and falsehood is made only in this world, and the results that appear in this world do not at all decide that the monotheists are on the truth and the polytheists are on falsehood. Therefore, this matter depends entirely on the desire and will of the polytheists, that they make whatever they wish as deities, as many as they wish, and whenever they wish, abandon one and adopt another as their deity. And whatever they do, they do merely on the basis of their own conjecture and assumption. Allah Almighty has made the Hereafter for the results of shirk and disbelief and tawheed, not this world. And this is the essential need for the Hereafter. If Allah had shown clear and decisive results between the monotheist and the polytheist in this world, then no one could have been tested in this world. However, those who have complete faith in the Hereafter can never commit shirk.
