16:74 An-Nahl (The Bee)

{ فَلَا تَضْرِبُوا لِلَّهِ الْأَمْثَالَ } المتضمنة للتسوية بينه وبين خلقه { إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ } فعلينا أن لا نقول عليه بلا علم وأن نسمع ما ضربه العليم من الأمثال

ولهذا قال تعالى "فلا تضربوا لله الأمثال" أي لا تجعلوا له أندادا وأشباها وأمثالا "إن الله يعلم وأنتم لا تعلمون" أي أنه يعلم ويشهد أنه لا إله إلا هو وأنتم بجهلكم تشركون به غيره.

Denouncing the Worship of anything besides Allah

Allah tells us about the Mushrikin who worship others besides Him, even though He alone is the bountiful Provider, the Creator and Sustainer, without partners or associates, but they still worship idols and make rivals for Him. He says:

مَا لاَ يَمْلِكُ لَهُمْ رِزْقًا مِّنَ السَّمَـوَتِ وَالاٌّرْضِ شَيْئًا

(such as do not have power to grant them any provision from the heavens or the earth) meaning, nobody can cause rain to fall, or make plants and trees grow. They cannot do these things for them- selves, even if they wanted to. Thus Allah says:

فَلاَ تَضْرِبُواْ لِلَّهِ الاٌّمْثَالَ

(So do not give examples on behalf of Allah.) meaning, do not set up rivals to Him or describe anything as being like Him.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

(Truly, Allah knows and you know not.) meaning, He knows and bears witness that there is no god but Him, but you are ignorant and associate others in worship with Him.

So do not strike any similitude for God do not ascribe to God likenesses and then associate them with Him in power. Truly God knows that there is nothing like Him and you do not know this.

The statement: فَلَا تَضْرِ‌بُوا لِلَّـهِ الْأَمْثَالَ (So, do not coin similarities for Allah -74) clarifies an important aspect of the reality of things as they relate to Allah. If ignored, it becomes the breeding ground of all sorts of rejectionist doubts and scruples. The problem is that people would generally take Allah Ta’ ala the analogy of their own humankind and go on to declare the highest placed among them, a king and ruler, as similar to Allah Ta’ ala. Then, relying on this wrong assumption, they start seeing the Di-vine system on the analogy of the system of human monarchs. This leads them to take a cue from the fact that since no king can, all by himself, run the administration of the whole kingdom, the system is run by dele-gating powers to subordinate ministers and officials who do that on his behalf. Similarly, they believe and propose that there have to be some other objects of worship under the authority of Allah Ta’ ala who would help Him out in carrying out His tasks. This is the general theory of all idol-worshipers and polytheists. This sentence of the Qur’ an has cut off the very root of these doubts by stating that suggesting examples of what has been created and applying them on Allah Ta’ ala, the Creator, is something unreasonable by itself. He is far above similarities and analogies and conjectures and guesses.