And when He threatened them with their associating partners with Him, which necessitates disbelief in His blessings; He followed it with another astonishment from their affair. So He said - referring to His saying (glorified and exalted is He): ﴿And they swore by Allah with the utmost of their oaths﴾ [An-Nahl: 38] -: ﴿And they make﴾; meaning: in the manner of repetition; ﴿that which they do not know﴾; of what they worship from the idols; and others; due to its being in the realm of non-existence in itself; and pure non-existence by what they described it with - as He said (glorified and exalted is He): ﴿Or do you inform Him of what He does not know﴾ [Ar-Ra'd: 33] -; ﴿a portion of what We have provided them﴾; by what We have of greatness; from crops; and livestock; and other than that; as a means of drawing closer to it; as explained in 'Al-An'am'; and you may connect it - and it is closer - to 'they associate'; so it would be included in the realm of 'if'; meaning: they face the blessing of His salvation with associating partners; and drawing closer with His provision to that which ignorance of it is better than knowledge of it; for it is non-existence; for it has no power; nor benefit in the status they have established for it; then He turned to them with a turning indicating what is deserved for this action of anger; so He said (glorified and exalted is He): ﴿By Allah﴾; meaning: the Greatest King; ﴿You will surely be questioned﴾; on the Day of Gathering; ﴿about what you used to﴾; meaning: a state that is in your natures; ﴿fabricate﴾; meaning: you deliberately in this world from this lie; a question of reprimand; and it is that which there is no answer for its owner except by what contains his disgrace.