Translation
He (God) is the One who created you from a single being, from it its mate, so that he may incline to her. So when he has intimate contact with her, she conceives a weight light enough to move about with it. As it grows heavy, they both call upon God, their Sustainer: “If You bless us with a good child, we will be most grateful.” But once He has given a good child, they begin to assert a partnership with God from which He has gifted them, whereas God is exalted and pure from such associations. Do they assert themselves as partners who created nothing and are themselves created? These cannot offer any help to others, nor can they help themselves. 391
If you invite them to guidance, they will not follow you. It is the same whether you call them to guidance or remain silent. Those whom you invoke besides God are subservient to God just like you. If you feel you speak the truth, then go ahead and call upon them—see if they answer you. Do they (these idols) have feet with which they walk, or hands with which they hold, or eyes with which they see, or ears with which they hear? Say (to them, O Prophet): “Invoke your gods, try to prevail over me, and give me no concession. My friend is God Himself Who inspired this Book, and He befriends those who subscribe to goodness.” Those whom you invoke besides God are not able to help you, let alone help themselves. If you invoke them for guidance, they hear you not. You might feel they are looking at you, but they see nothing. 392
Interpretation
391 The exchange of God’s gift—a child is the best of all gifts—should invoke thankfulness, humility, and a willingness to fulfill our human commitment to that child, to other human beings in general, and, in the end, to God Almighty, the Creator. Yet to the people of Arabia at the time, the birth of a son brought out pride and arrogance at its best, as if they had accomplished a great thing by themselves, forgetting that it was God Who had provided such a child, and they would prepare to assign the child its own god to worship, just as they themselves and their forefathers worshiped stones and objects and established godheads—each person and each clan would have their own set of gods to show devotion to. On the other hand, if a female child was born, they would be ashamed, as if God had humiliated them, and they would even go ahead and bury the child alive, as if to avoid the curse of a godhead. Such gender biases continue to play havoc in many Muslim societies where parents favor the son over daughters and daughters are not extended the same freedom and access to education. Daughters are being forced to marry early, offered limited voice in selecting a partner, and sometimes forced to marry cousins, a practice that continues in Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, to name a few countries. All such practices are somehow justified in the name of Islam, but no such encouragement is in the Qur’an or in the teachings of the Prophet. These are tribal cultures that persist, just as the people of Makkah did during the time of the Prophet.
392 By pointing out the basic flaws in worshiping objects that have no capability to feel, see, hear, or move, capabilities that every human being has been endowed with, God is asking us to rise to a higher level of worship, the worship of the Creator Who is infinite in knowledge, creation, and capabilities. Too often the innate nature of human beings to connect with God and to find meaning in life gets translated into worshiping false godheads, developing superstitious practices, and, in our current societal norms, a notion of spirituality that is earthbound and devoid of any divine connection and looks inward to our inner goods but fails to inquire where such goodness comes from.
REFLECTION
The search for God is innate in human nature and has been an ongoing process since the creation of human beings. As the Prophet of Islam said, He who knows himself, knows God. It is within our ability to connect with God and to conform to the nature of things as God has created them, as has been made abundantly clear in the Books of Revelations such as the Qur’an, the Bible, and the Torah.
ACTION
Every generation has to understand its connection with God and how to shape their current practices and norms (personal and societal) in light of divine teachings and ever-compounding human knowledge, a gift from God that is limitless.