هٰذا خَلقُ اللَّهِ فَأَروني ماذا خَلَقَ الَّذينَ مِن دونِهِ ۚ بَلِ الظّالِمونَ في ضَلالٍ مُبينٍ
This is the creation of Allah. Now show Me what others besides Him have created. Rather, the wrongdoers are in manifest error!
EXPOSITION
It is as if this verse serves as a conclusion to the foregoing. The beginning part of this verse, This is the creation of Allah is a reference to the content of the previous verse.
Now show Me what others besides Him have created such that they deserve being His partners in divinity.
The imperative occurs in the meaning of rendering the interlocutor powerless, attempting to foil his endeavours and defeat him. This rhetorical interrogative also aims to convey censure, disapproval, and condemnation by the speaker coupled with surprise on the speaker’s part in respect of a deed by the addressee, which is not befitting him/her (which in this case refers to the denial of one God). This kind of rhetorical interrogative is known as al-istifhām al-inkārī. It is as if having shown the Prophet’s disbelieving interlocutors God’s creation and governance of the heavens and the earth and what is in them, thereby establishing His singular lordship of everything, the Quran now challenges its audience to show what their gods have created if they are truly gods. But if they cannot find anything to show then it proves God’s singular lordship of everything. Indeed they will not find any answer to this rhetorical question and nor will they be able to show anything that their so-called gods had created, and hence it is not their god’s creation of anything that led them to their worship, but rather it is their manifest deviation from the truth.
This verse also testifies to God’s unicity. It condemns the polytheists for abandoning the worship of the one true God and preferring to worship His creation that neither hears nor sees, while they can see these brilliant signs of God which leaves the human intellect bewildered, astonished, and in awe. Consequently, these individuals, due to their worship of other than God, are both wrongdoers and in manifest error as the terminal part of this verse declares, Rather, the wrongdoers are in manifest error! They are wrongdoers because by abandoning consideration of the signs of God in the universe they are wronging themselves, and because worship is the right of the one true God, the glorified, while the polytheists had rendered it for one who was unworthy of it. They are in manifest error because they had turned away from the clear truth to pure falsehood.
The tone of this verse suggests that the speech in this verse is something that the Prophet addressed to the disbelievers at God’s behest. This is because this kind of address – Now show Me what others besides Him have created – is only appropriate to him, which would mean that the tail end of this verse, Rather, the wrongdoers are in manifest error, is God’s speech. Verses with similar import are 35:40, 46:4, 52:35-36, 7:191, 16:20, and 13:16.
[1] Munyah, 21/129.
[2] Tabrisi, 8/493.
[3] Munyah, 21/129.
[4] Munyah, 21/129.
[5] Mizan, 16/211-212.
[6] Tabrisi, 8/493.
[7] Tibyan, 8/274.
[8] Munyah, 21/129.
[9] Munyah, 21/129.
[10] Mizan, 16/212.