And when he mentioned that they ask in the manner of the first about worship, he alerted to the fact that they worshiped them while claiming femininity in them. He said, marveling at them in that and in making their saying a proof indicating the correctness of their doctrine, which is one of the weakest doubts: ﴿And they said﴾ meaning after their worship of them and their prohibition of worshiping other than Allah: ﴿If the Most Merciful had wished﴾ meaning the One who has general mercy ﴿we would not have worshiped them﴾ because the general mercy prevents acknowledgment of what is not appropriate. However, He did not wish for us to not worship them, so we worshiped them by His will. Thus, our worship of them is true, and if it were not true, which He would be pleased with for us, He would have hastened for us the punishment.

And when it was as if it were said: How will they respond to this? He said, alerting to their response by saying, indicating that the foundations of religion should only be spoken of with certainty: ﴿What do they have in that﴾ (p-407) meaning in this meaning far from the correctness that they intended to make a proof for the truth of their worship of them. It is that He, glorified and exalted is He, does not will except what is true and that He is pleased with and commands. And from the fact that the angels are females. He affirmed the comprehensiveness by saying: ﴿From knowledge﴾ meaning because if this were necessary, then its status with the general mercy at that time would be compulsory, not voluntary, leading to deficiency, not to perfection. And that would also lead to the necessity that all people be pleased with them for being on the truth, and that undoubtedly leads to the existence of opposites being true together, which is an obvious impossibility.

And when knowledge may cease while the known is established in itself, he said denying that: ﴿They are﴾ meaning what they are ﴿only fabricating﴾ meaning they are lying in this conclusion that they claimed led them to the pleasure of Allah, glorified is He, for their disbelief. For it is based on the idea that He, glorified is He, does not will except what is true. And what encouraged them to that is that they continually renew the saying without verification or investigation, so most of their words are lies. Thus, they became emboldened to deliberately speak based on conjecture, which does not protect its owner from falling into clear error. And the complete refutation of this doubt will come in His saying, the Most High: ﴿Say: If the Most Merciful has a son, then I am the first of the worshipers﴾ [Az-Zukhruf: 81]. And that is what is intended, not what has been confused in it due to negligence in the precedents and consequences that necessitate the context of the statement, matching the requirements of the situation. (p-408) And they have been ignorant in this speech of several ignorances: the claim of sonship for the Absolute Rich, and the fact that the son is of the lesser two types, and their worship of them while they themselves have no proof, and their need for the correctness of their action to be based on knowledge of that, while He has prohibited them from it by the tongue of every messenger. And their assumption that He does not will except what is the truth that leads to all being between opposites, for there is no doubt in it and no ambiguity.